Criminal Defense

When you’ve been wrongfully accused of a crime or when your constitutional rights have been walked on in the name of law enforcement, you may need the experienced criminal defense team at Patton & Hyder. Call us WHEN JUSTICE DEMANDS IT.

If your rights have been violated and you are wrongfully arrested, we suggest that you be as nice as you can possibly be to that errant officer. When you post bail, call PATTON & HYDER, and let us be the bad guys.

Simply knowing what your rights are goes a long way toward seeing that they are respected. For example: In order to initiate a stop of your vehicle in Tennessee, a law enforcement officer must have reasonable suspicion that you are either engaged or about to be engaged in criminal activity. That means it is not enough that you were driving a 1975 Volkswagen van an hour outside of Manchester, TN the day before Bonaroo begins!

Also, you should know that you have the right to say no when an officer politely asks if he or she can search your vehicle. With very limited exceptions, an officer must have probable cause to conduct a search of your vehicle. Recent TN case law provides that when you are stopped for speeding, an expired tag, or some similar violation of the law, for which you would normally be issued a citation and allowed to go on your way, that stop cannot be unreasonably prolonged, for instance, while a K-9 unit (drug dog) is dispatched to sniff around your vehicle.