Unauthorized Driver of Rental Car Does Not Have Expectation of Privacy

A defendant needs to have standing in order to contest the lawfulness of a warrantless search. In order to establish standing, the defendant must demonstrate an adequate connection to an event & sufficient injury from the event to support that individual's or parties participation in the case. In a criminal case which involves a search, to prove standing, a person must show injury-in-fact as well as a reasonable expectation of privacy. If somebody has a reasonable expectation of privacy, they will have standing to contest the legality of the search.

There are totally obvious places where a person will no doubt have a reasonable expectation of privacy. There is no doubt that an individual would surely have a reasonable expectation of privacy in his or her own bedroom or house. Having said that, there are numerous areas that don't have a bright line.

In the case of Cooper vs. State of Florida, the 1st District Court of Appeal upheld the circuit court's finding that defendant did not have standing to challenge a search of the rental car which he was driving when he wasn't the renter or an authorized driver. Defendant did not have a privacy interest since he was an unauthorized driver, & accordingly he didn't have standing to contest the lawfulness of the search. The appellate court noted that this factual scenario was a matter of 1st impression in the Florida Courts & also that the federal courts were split. The court affirmed, in its decision, the Third, Fourth, Fifth, & Tenth circuits, which have adopted a general ‘bright-line' rule that barring any extraordinary circumstances, a driver of a rental car that is not authorized by the rental car contract doesn't have a reasonable expectation of privacy and as such does not have no standing to contest a search of the car.

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