All right.

Lawyer talk, off the record, on the air.

Check us out.

Lawyer, let me start over.

Lawyer talk, off the record, on the air.

Q and A style.

Taking a question today from Omar.

Yep.

On Facebook here, he says, I want to know, is there a statute of limitations for suing the police?

I have no idea.

Yes, there's going to be a statute of limitations for suing the police.

What it is, like so many things in law is it all depends.

Yes.

And so how it works is 1983, they leave it up to the states.

So you're talking about US Code Section 1983, which provides individuals the right to sue for constitutional rights violations.

Yep.

Okay.

And so how they determine what the statute of limitations is, they go state by state.

So if there's a state court statute of limitations from the incident of one year, then this is, generally speaking, going to be the same in federal court.

Yeah.

And the United States Supreme Court, they solidified this.

And Wilson v. Garcia, they just said, we got to look at the state, and we gotta look at what the.

The tort statue is there.

There's a lot.

There's some more case law out there on it.

Every state, sometimes their statues aren't that plain and a little tricky, so it's hard to go by for some.

And these are questions, folks.

This is why we don't give legal advice here.

This is not legal advice on statute of limitations.

These are really, really dicey questions because a lot of this can.

Can depend upon if you were charged with a crime as a result of this, when you know you're not going to file a lawsuit generally until that crime is done.

And sometimes the statute might start there, sometimes it might start as soon as the act is.

And you got hold it in a bit.

I mean, I don't do civil litigation.

We can talk to our resident expert, Goldstein on this, but, you know, be careful what I would say.

And I can tell you how I deal with this when it comes into my office.

Being a criminal defense lawyer, if somebody comes in and I see an obvious Fourth Amendment problem or an obvious civil rights violation, I immediately pick up the phone and I say, hello, there, Mr. Civil Rights Lawyer.

I have a client.

Here are the facts of the case.

What say you?

And a lot of times I'll get the answer.

Eh, maybe not so much, but have him call me, and I'll give him.

Because my point is, I want to make sure that I'm trying to protect my client, because I will tell my client, look, you may have a civil rights case here.

I don't do that kind of work.

I'm here to represent you in the criminal case, but I work with others who do.

Please consult with somebody immediately so we don't screw something up.

You know, and you could say that might be CYA legal practice, but it's also helping the client cover their backside.

I want to make sure, client, that you protect your rights here, because if you've got a case, we don't want to blow a statute of limitations because we waited until the criminal case is over.

Go get good advice from the law, a lawyer who does this where you are.

And if that lawyer gives you a wishy washy advice, get a second opinion.

You get as many opinions as you want.

Your case.

It's your right.

All right.

Taking questions if you got one.

Leave it to us here in the comments or at lawyertalkpodcast.

Com.