Q: Is there a specific form to file a motion so suppress evidence for a NJ municipal court?

A: Yes there is. You need to make a Motion, which is done pursuant to Court Rule 3:5-7. Motion to Suppress Evidence and for Return of Property. You should retain legal counsel rather than trying this on your own. Good luck.

A: a brief should also be filed

THE WARRANTLESS SEARCH WAS IN

VIOLATION OF DEFENDANT'S FEDERAL

AND STATE CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS.

The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

The New Jersey Constitution (1947, Article 1, Paragraph 7) prohibits any unreasonable searches and seizures and guarantees to the people the same rights as the Federal Constitution.

When evidence is seized or even a car is stopped without a warrant or violation, the burden of proof is upon the state to prove that there was no Fourth Amendment violation. State v. Brown, 132 N.J. Super. (App. Div. 1975). The state must prove that there was no Fourth Amendment violation by a preponderance of the evidence. State v. Whittington, 142 N.J. Super. 45 (App. Div. 1976). Such searches are presumptively invalid and the State carries the burden of proof of legality. State v Valencia 93 NJ 126, 133 (1983), State v. Brown, supra.; State v. Welsh, 84 N.J. 348, (1980). In the absence of a valid exception to the requirement for a search warrant, a search conducted without a warrant is per se unreasonable. Schnekloth v. Bustamonte, 412 U.S. 218,219, 93 S. Ct. 2041, 36 L. Ed 2d 854, 858 (1973)

Enforcement of the federally created rights has been effected by rendering the fruits of unconstitutional searches inadmissible in associated criminal court proceedings, Weeks v United States 232 US 383, 34 S. Ct. 341, 58 L. Ed 652 (1914). These restrictions are applicable to the states, Mapp v Ohio, 367 US 643, 81 S. Ct. 1684, 6 L. Ed 2d 1081 (1961).

State judges, no less than federal judges, have the high responsibility for protecting constitutional rights. While they are disturbed to allow defendants to go unprosecuted, their oath of office requires them to continue the guarantees afforded by the Constitution. As explained in Weeks, supra,:

The efforts of the courts and their officials to bring the guilty to punishment, praiseworthy as they are, are not to be aided by the sacrifice of those great principles established by years of endeavor and suffering which have resulted in their embodiment in the fundamental law of the land. Weeks v United States 232 US 383,393, 34 S. Ct. 341, 58 L. Ed 652 (1914).

Independently of federally mandated rights, each state has the power to impose higher standards on searches and seizures under dictate law than is required by the federal constitution, PruneYard Shopping Center v Robins 447 US 74, 81 (1980); State v Johnson 68 NJ 349, 353 (1975). In fact, New Jersey has chosen to afford to the accused in the search and seizure area greater rights than those deemed mandated by the United States Constitution. State v Alston, 88 NJ 21 (1981); State v Novembrino 220 NJ Super. 229, 240-243 (App. Div. 1985), aff'd 105 NJ 95 (1987).

Courts are to afford liberal, not grudging enforcement of the Fourth Amendment. We do not have one law of search and seizure for narcotics and gambling cases and another for breaking and entering and theft. The meanness of the offender or the gravity of his crime does not decrease, but rather accentuates the duty of the courts to uphold and dispassionately apply the settled judicial criteria for lawful searches under the Amendment. For it is the hard case which sometimes proves the Achilles' heal of constitutional rights, even as it tends to make bad law in other areas. State v Naturile 83 NJ Super. 563, 579 (App. Div. 1964).