False Arrest & Civil Rights Violations

Too often innocent persons find themselves arrested for a crime that they not only did not commit, but for which they never should have been arrested in the first place. Counties, cities, police departments and individual police officers are all liable for false arrest or civil rights violations in situations where there was an utter lack of probable cause for the arrest. Often individuals are arrested based on mistaken identity, where computer records or scientific evidence would have quickly cleared them as suspects. Sometimes the innocent languish hours, days, weeks, or even years in jail for crimes they never committed and for which there was no probable cause to arrest them for in the first place. Under both state and federal law, police officers and law enforcement agencies and their responsible counties and cities can be sued for false arrest and civil rights violations. Attorneys undertaking these cases face steep challenges and must be thoroughly versed in the legal technicalities of this practice area and also must be willing to fight long legal battles that sometimes go on for years.