The 4th and 5th Amendments to the United States Constitution, as well as other state and federal laws, protect you against police misconduct in Toledo, Northwest Ohio, and throughout the region. Illegal behaviors may include harassment, unreasonable or excessive use of force, false imprisonment, illegal searches, including illegal strip searches, and false arrest. Additionally, if you have been wrongfully convicted because of police misconduct, you may be entitled to damages. If your misconduct case is successful, a money judgment can include compensatory damages, damages for emotional distress, and potentially substantial punitive damages.
Police misconduct is a special area of the law where experience on the part of the attorney is uniquely critical, and where you need to be competently represented in order to be successful. Such cases require a solid grasp not only of the state and federal law of police misconduct, but of police practices and how they intersect with the law. Additionally, faced with a police misconduct claim, a municipality will often raise a defense of "qualified immunity." This defense alleges that the police officers acted in good faith and should not be liable for the consequences of their actions. In my more than 37 years of practicing in this area of law in Toledo, Northwest Ohio, and throughout the region, I have taken on municipalities alleging qualified immunity in a wide variety of circumstances. I have successfully handled many police misconduct cases and can effectively represent your interests in state or federal court.
Expert testimony is often needed in police misconduct cases. For example, accepted standards of police conduct or appropriate levels of force in a given set of circumstances may be at issue. In cases of wrongful death due to police misconduct, the professional opinions of toxicologists, pathologists, and coroners may play vital roles in litigation. In dealing with cases of police misconduct in Toledo and throughout Northwest Ohio and the Midwest region, I have worked with some of the most renowned experts in these and other scientific fields to help bring about recovery for my clients.
As a general word of advice, it will usually be in your best interest to contact me as soon as possible after you have experienced an action which you believe may constitute police misconduct. Rigid statutes of limitation may cut off your right to file a lawsuit if you delay too long before bringing the suit. In addition, over the passage of time, memories may fade, witnesses may disappear, and your chances of prevailing in the suit may be diminished.
Prisoners do not lose all their rights just because they've been incarcerated. While prison and jail inmates must obviously expect some limitations on the freedoms and comforts they enjoyed on the outside, they have the right to appropriate medical care, appropriate housing, the right to observe their religion, consistent with appropriate security concerns, and protection from sexual or other violent attacks by other prisoners, and from the use of excessive force or sexual abuse by corrections personnel. Inmate and more especially visitor strip searches are also fertile areas for corrections personnel abuses. Finally, corrections officers and officials have a duty to protect those in their care from taking their own lives. Failure to provide these rights and protections may be the basis of a lawsuit to pursue money damages.
I represent prisoners in both state and federal facilities, whether here in Toledo or in other Ohio jail and prison facilities, or in federal facilities anywhere in the country. If you or a family member or other loved one has been denied appropriate medical care or housing, or has been subjected to any of the above or other abuses while incarcerated, I urge you to call this office and set up an appointment to meet with me. These are often very difficult cases, but I am experienced in protecting the rights of inmates, and will work hard to ensure that you or your loved one will receive the rights and protections to which you or they are entitled under U.S. and Ohio law.
So if you believe that you have been subjected to police misconduct in any of its many forms, or that your rights as an inmate in a jail or prison are being violated, I encourage you to call my office and set up an initial consultation. For more than 37 years, I have been successfully representing victims of police misconduct and violations of prisoners rights in Toledo, Northwest Ohio, and throughout the State and the Midwest region. As with any other area of law, no attorney can guarantee success in a given case, but I will do everything I can to assert your right to be treated fairly and lawfully by law enforcement agencies and officials, and penal facility staff and officials.
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