Legitimate Expectation Law and Legal Definition
Legitimate expectation applies the principles of fairness and reasonableness to a situation where a person has an expectation or interest in a public body or private parties retaining a long-standing practice or keeping a promise. For e.g., a person has a reasonable legitimate expectation of privacy in his/her house.
Legitimate expectation of privacy exists where defendant has manifested expectation of privacy that society recognizes as reasonable. The test is whether defendant exhibited expectation of privacy in place or item searched, and whether society generally recognizes defendant's expectation of privacy as reasonable.[ People v Ramirez-Portoreal (1996) 88 NY2d 99, 643 NYS2d 502, 666 NE2d 207]
The doorway to a private house has been held to be a "public place" for purposes of Fourth Amendment analysis, since the defendant had no legitimate expectation of privacy while standing there, exposed to public view [People v. Anderson, 146 A.D.2d 638, 640 (N.Y. App. Div. 2d Dep't 1989)]
