If you are on trial in criminal court, then the level of certainty that matters is “beyond a reasonable doubt.” The jury must acquit you if they think that you might be guilty as long as they have reasonable doubt about your guilt. Likewise, in civil lawsuits, the outcome depends on whether a preponderance of the evidence shows that the plaintiff’s claims are true. Therefore, if you are a plaintiff in a civil lawsuit, your goal is to show that there is a greater than 50% chance that you are correct, whereas if you are a defendant, your goal is to show that there is a less than 50 percent chance that the plaintiff is correct. When it comes to the standard of evidence for an arrest, what matters is probable cause. At such an early stage of your case, there is still plenty of uncertainty about whether you are guilty of the crime with which you were charged, but the relevant question is whether the police had any business arresting you in the first place. Arresting someone without probable cause is a violation of the rights of defendants in criminal cases. A Tulsa criminal defense lawyer can help you if you are arrested without probable cause.

What Happens if the Police Arrest You Without Probable Cause?

If the police want to keep you in custody for more than 48 hours after your arrest, the burden of proof is on them to show that there is probable cause for arresting you. Therefore, the court must hold a probable cause hearing no more than 48 hours after the arrest. Even if you are not detained, your lawyer has the right to request a probable cause hearing at any point in your case if your lawyer believes that there was no probable cause for your arrest. If the court determines that you were arrested without probable cause, it must dismiss the charges against you. This is an even better outcome than being acquitted because you do not have to go through a trial.

The problem is that deciding whether there is probable cause is a subjective measure. Probable cause means that if a reasonable person saw you in the moment at which the officer decided to stop you, he or she would believe that you were in the act of committing a crime or had just committed a crime. There is probable cause to arrest you if you were running out of a retail store while employees chased you, shouting that you were stealing. Simply seeing you run away without the other context is not probable cause. Maybe you were running because you remembered that you had left your phone in the car and your mother had probably been trying to call you and was worried when you didn’t answer.

Contact Tracy Tiernan About Criminal Defense Cases

A criminal defense lawyer can help you demonstrate that the police arrested you without probable cause. Contact Tracy Tiernan in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to discuss your case.