Lawyer talk off the record, on the air, taking questions, not legal advice, but we're taking questions. So what's the idea here? We're going to break down some of these scenarios that people write us about. And by the way, appreciate the questions. They're coming on Facebook, they're coming in the comments. We get them on lawyertalkpodcast.com I love it. It keeps the show going. It's what we like to do. But I gotta, I gotta, we gotta issue at least a warning here, is that I can't analyze your legal problems, folks. If you've got a situation in another state, in another jurisdiction, or even in Ohio, I'm going to talk about the law, I'm going to talk about the big picture issues, but I'm not going to give you legal advice. I can't.

I haven't taken NPRE yet, but I've taken ethics.

And we just can't model professional responsibility. Yeah. I don't have a license to practice in other states. It's just too complicated. But anyway, we did get a question from Chris and I'm not going to go into all the details of his question, but it's sort of like this. There's a guy in a car. We'll just say there's a guy in a car in a parking lot. Maybe it falls asleep and the police knock on the door and say, what's up? The question is whether that implicates the Fourth Amendment, how much it implicates the Fourth Amendment, and what do we do about it? And this happens a lot. I mean, I'll give you another scenario where I've dealt with before. Turns out he was a drug dealer. Imagine that happens. Happens. Turns out he was transporting drugs.

Happens.

And he got a flat tire.

That also happens.

Could you think of the worst? Yeah. If you're a drug dealer, you're cruising down, you think, yeah, I'm almost home. Flat tire. So he pulls off on a little, it was a culvert or I don't know what you would call it, like berm? No, it was like a farm field. You pull off and he's changing his tire. Well, Deputy law comes a knocking, you know, and says, what's going on? Client acts a little nervous or who knows? Next thing you know, there's a search and you're going. So the question is, is the first encounter, is when the police first encounter that car, does that require justification under the Fourth Amendment? Because we know, we've talked about a case called Delaware vs. Prowse, that police stop of a Motor vehicle is a significant intrusion that requires justification under the fourth Amendment. Troy would have said it.

Yes.

I did it before he knew. Yes. At any rate, that this is considered. This kind of scenario is considered different than that. It's not the police lighting you up on the highway saying, pull over. It's. It's different. The police are coming to conduct what we call a welfare check. And you could disagree that the police might use this, or you could even argue, probably rightfully, sometimes, that the police would use this welfare check as a pretext to do more. Yeah. And, you know, that may be the case. There's other protections down the road or. I didn't mean to say as the thing progresses, but here, if the police come knocking on somebody's window when they're sleeping in the parking lot there, I think it's validly going to be called what we call a welfare check or consensual encounter. We covered another situation where people go into a home for a welfare type check. But this is this. There's even less expectation of privacy here, but because the person in the car in a public place, now, it might be a private lot, but out in the world, not in a house, is probably going to be okay. At least the first interaction. Now, what if the police surround the guy and block him in on all four sides? You know, start adding stuff to the scale. Maybe at some point it becomes a detention that requires justification. Typically, that would be at a minimum. That would be what is required at a minimum to detain a car that.

The person doesn't feel like they're free to leave.

No reasonable suspicion. So the police have to have some reasonable and articulable suspicion that something is going on here. And then oftentimes, these sort of initial consensual counters or welfare things, they become consensual searches. Hey, what's going on? Just catching a little shut eye, man. No harm in that. What's wrong? Little pizza on our time.

Community college. You ever been there?

You're here. This is all our time. You don't remember fast times. Anyway, the cops often sort of use this as a way to weasel in and start asking permission to do things. Hey, you mind if I just look in your car? And you think to yourself, well, no. Yes.

What's the worst that could happen?

What could possibly happen? Well, maybe your Aunt sue was in the car and she's a pill addict and she left dope in the glove box or something. Who knows? But the police say, search my car. And you're like, yeah, sure, I'M not doing anything wrong. They search the car and lo and behold, they find something. And that's how this stuff ends up in our office. But look, I know this question that we're talking about. There was a lot more detail to it. That's as good as I'm going to get because that's the legal issue involved. If you've got a legal problem and you're getting accused of something wherever you are, the most important advice I can give you is contact a lawyer before you make any decisions. Period. End of story. I can't help you in a different state. I'm not that guy. If you've got a big problem and you want us to represent you in a different state, we can talk about how that looks. But what I'm doing here is not legal advice, folks. Please don't take it as legal advice here. This is just a courtesy. Breaking down the law. I like to say I speak both languages. I speak the legal geek. And I think I'm pretty normal, too. So look, I hope that answers your question or at least covers some of the issues that may be coming up. If you've got a question, you've got something you want us to cover, shoot it to us right here in the socials, in the comments, or go to lawyertalkpodcast.com where we are off the record, on the air each and every week.