Aggravating Factors

I took a horrible phone call this morning from a potential client, who found me through an old blog post. This woman was in a same sex relationship with another woman, and they had a 19 month old child together.

The other woman recently and unexpectedly passed away. She was only 26.

She was also, however, the biological mother of the child, and almost predictably, the biological grandmother is holding the kid hostage, planning to move her to FLORIDA! I asked the client whether there was a will, a cohab agreement, a family continuation plan, a civil union in another state — anything that would indicate the permanence and stability of a family. Only a medical power of attorney.

This sad, terrible story was entirely preventable. A couple thousand dollars spent on a lawyer when she was alive, and this could have been completely avoided. Now, it will be MANY thousands of dollars. Worse still, the emotional cost will be overwhelming.

So let me be clear. Same sex couples ABSOLUTELY MUST HAVE plans in place — at the VERY least an advance medical directive. Where there are kids involved, you need a will that spells out who should have custody. The best thing to do is for the non-biological parent to adopt.

I am so sorry for her. My heart is full of sadness.

I took a call from a potential client this morning that reminds me how little most people understand about the system or their rights. During a traffic stop, police asked permission to search his car, and the search resulted in a few long forgotten marijuana seeds. Hardly the crime of the century, but a crime with serious ramifications nonetheless.

The person’s mistake? The police asked for consent to search, and he said yes thinking he was clean.

The police ask for permission if (and ONLY if) they don’t have enough evidence to get a warrant. Police officers cannot search based on their hunches; or if a person fits a profile; or for the hell of it; or any of the hundred other reasons police have “in their gut” for wanting to search a car.

Unless you give permission! Then it doesn’t really matter what they believed. If a person consents, barring a literal gun to the head, the search is almost certainly going to be upheld. Now this person faces criminal charges, had his truck seized (no doubt so they get a warrant to tear it apart looking for more drugs), and is in a bit of hot water.

Oh, and because these were seeds, he can be charged with growing weed, which is a felony.

Hopefully, the police find nothing else, charge him with misdemeanors and we can work out a solution that pleases everyone. He wouldn’t be in this predicament if he simply said to the police “No, you may not search my car.”