A lawyer during the search of an apartment/private house

A search belongs to the category of the most unpleasant investigative actions. From the point of view of the investigator’s psychology and tactics, this procedural action is unpredictable and involves the involvement of a significant number of participants. Searches of an apartment or a private house are most often carried out in the presence of certain facts or circumstances of criminal proceedings. Please note: conducting such an investigative action as a search is impossible without registration of criminal proceedings in the Unified Register of Pretrial Investigations. A lawyer during the search of an apartment/private house is one of the services provided by specialists Prykhodko and Partners.

Apartment/private house search: what to remember?

Conducting a search requires compliance with certain rules. In particular, it is not allowed to carry out investigative actions at night, that is, from 10 p.m. until 06.00. The exception is urgent cases.

The representatives of the investigative bodies must present themselves by submitting relevant documents. At this stage, it is advisable to immediately enlist the support of a lawyer. This rule is guaranteed by the Constitution of Ukraine and the Criminal Procedure Code. The admission of a lawyer to investigative actions is regulated by the third paragraph of Article 236 of the Criminal Procedure Code. Therefore, the lawyer can be admitted to the search at any of the stages of its conduct.

At the stage of the search, it is very important to make sure that there are legal grounds for conducting it. The representatives of investigative bodies must have, in particular, a court order to conduct a search.

Algorithm of actions during the search

Thus, the behavior algorithm during cheating consists of the following elements:

• Verification of documents.

These can be service certificates, the decision of the investigating judge with the following important information: the validity period of the decision (is no more than one month), references to the relevant normative legal acts, etc.

Important: one court document – permission to conduct investigative actions in an apartment/private house only once. In the absence of good reasons for the immediate execution of investigative actions, it should be carried out only during the day.

• The right to legal aid.

Representatives of law enforcement agencies do not have the right to refuse the presence of a lawyer during a search. If the lawyer is not allowed to participate in the investigation, the evidence collected by the investigators can be considered illegal and inadmissible (paragraph three of Article 87 of the Criminal Procedure Code).

• Possibility of photo and video recording.

Investigators have the right to take photos and videos during the search. A similar right can be used by the suspect – the owner of the premises and the lawyer. The main condition is to warn all search participants about this.

Assistance of professional lawyers during the search of a private apartment/house

Very often, representatives of investigative bodies allow violations during the search. Including:

• Non-observance of pre-trial investigation deadlines.
• Entering inaccurate information into the protocol.
• Admission to the search of persons who do not have the appropriate authority.

Lawyers Prykhodko and Partners will help protect your rights during the search. We provide the full range of services during the pre-trial investigation, in particular, during the search:

• Verification of correctness of execution of decisions of investigators.
• Assessment of compliance of actions of representatives of law enforcement agencies with the law.
• Challenging illegal actions of investigators.
• Protection against counterfeiting.

Do you still have questions? We are waiting for a preliminary consultation! To calculate the cost of a lawyer’s services when searching an apartment/private house, fill out the form below.