3.1 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS

• Jurisdiction: Virginia
• Library: Defending Criminal Cases in Virginia (Virginia CLE) (2025 Ed.)

3.1 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS

A criminal case usually begins with the arrest of a suspect, either with or without a warrant, followed by an appearance before a magistrate, who commits the suspect to jail, admits him or her to bail, or discharges him or her from custody.

The law of arrest involves both constitutional and statutory constraints. The "arrest" of a suspect is a "seizure" of the person and implicates the full panoply of Fourth Amendment protections, including the "probable cause" and "warrant" concepts. Moreover, the Fourth Amendment also governs seizures of the person that do not fit neatly into the commonly accepted definition of an arrest. Any forcible detention of a person by the government may amount to a seizure even though it might not be a formal arrest as that term is commonly understood. A detention is only a...