I was pulled over for a cracked window and supposedly running a stop sign. Very soon after I was pulled over a K-9 unit showed up and began searching the car for marijuana. I stated that they had no right to do this without my permission and they said they had probable cause because the dog reacted to the alleged marijuana smell. There was no marijuana. They radioed in my identity and it came back, to my surprise, that my license was suspended! I was arrested for driving on a suspended license and felony drug possession.

I sat in jail for three days and when they let me out, I contacted driver's services who eventually admitted that the suspension was not my fault. Can I use the illegal search and seizure angle to defend myself, considering that they were looking for something that they claimed to detect, found none of it, and really had no just cause to be there since my license should never have been suspended?

Police get to act on the information they have at the time. If the system reported your driver license as suspended, they get to arrest for that, even if it later turns out that the information was inaccurate due to a DMV error. The remedy for illegal search is that anything found during that search may be suppressed. However, pursuant to arrest, police would have inventoried the contents of the vehicle anyway, and if whatever they found was found in a location where it would have been discovered during a normal inventory of the vehicle (as opposed to being hidden in the engine compartment or behind an interior panel), you can expect the illegal substance found to be admissible.

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While pointers can be helpful, ultimately the number one lesson in any legal action is: don't take legal advice from books, family, friends, co-workers, police officers, grocery clerks, web sites, or people on legal message boards. The only person who can give YOU legal advice is YOUR attorney.

http://www.aardvarc.org

I tend to agree with aardvarc. Have you browsed through the information in LawInfo's Free Legal Resource Center to learn more about your issue yet? See: http://www.lawinfo.com/consumer.html and http://resources.lawinfo.com/en/index.html. You can certainly try to speak to a lawyer to determine what legal options may be available. In the meantime, you may be able to learn more on your own. Search the "Free Legal Resources" tab, or browse the Consumer Resources. Good luck.

Thank you. I have spoken to one lawyer and I intend to speak with at least one other.

That's absolutely the smart thing to do. The more opinions you get from people versed in issue, the broader the information you'll be able to gather, and the better you'll be able to make decisions about how to attack the problem.

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While pointers can be helpful, ultimately the number one lesson in any legal action is: don't take legal advice from books, family, friends, co-workers, police officers, grocery clerks, web sites, or people on legal message boards. The only person who can give YOU legal advice is YOUR attorney.

http://www.aardvarc.org

What are my chances of winning a lawsuit against the DDS for Ruining my life? I was supposed to leave for a study abroad program a few days after my arrest. Obviously, I was told I had to stay in the country so I was unable to go. Because I didn't go, my scholarship did not pay for the program. I am still responsible for paying the cost so now I have a large debt and cannot attend school.

You certainly can speak with an attorney, but nothing will happen until after the criminal case.