Search and Seizure of Equipment in Latvia: Rights, Police Actions & Lawyer Role

What Triggers a Search

A search in Latvia is rarely a surprise to the investigation itself — it is always preceded by an active case. Most often it is a criminal investigation against a company or one of its executives: suspicion of tax evasion, fraud, money laundering, or labor law violations. But it's important to understand another reality: searches often target not the suspect but someone who happened to be involved in the case.

A typical situation is your business partner or client came under investigation, and your company simply conducted transactions with them or kept correspondence. The investigator cannot always immediately separate a scheme participant from a conscientious partner, so searches are conducted where there are only documents or equipment that might shed light on someone else's case. Similarly, a cause might be a tax check by Valsts ieņēmumu dienests, a complaint from a former employee, suspicion of smuggling, or a proceeding in which a company or individual figures only as a witness.

For a migrant or small-business owner from Ukraine, the boundary between "suspect" and "just involved" feels especially acute: the language, unfamiliar legal system, and stress push toward mistakes. That's why it's worth understanding the mechanics in advance — who has the right to come, what they can demand, and where authority ends.

Who Conducts Searches and Seizures

In Latvia, search and equipment seizure is an investigative action performed by authorized agencies within criminal proceedings. The main executor is Valsts policija, which acts on orders from an investigator or prosecutor. In cases involving taxes, smuggling, or customs duty evasion, searches are most often conducted by Nodokļu un muitas policijas pārvalde — a unit within Valsts ieņēmumu dienests that specializes in tax and customs crimes. Overall supervision of the lawfulness of investigative actions is exercised by prokuratūra: the prosecutor participates in decisions about searches and in urgent cases can authorize actions that normally require a court decision. These agencies are the main actors at your door.

Anyone conducting a search is obliged to confirm their identity and authority with a service badge. This is not formality — it's the first thing to verify. Ask to see the document, write down the name and position. If persons refuse or rush, this is a signal for later challenging the action.

The Decision That Permits a Search

A search — kratīšana — in Latvia is conducted based on a decision by an investigating judge, izmeklēšanas tiesneša lēmums. This is a court document that pre-checks the reasonableness of the action: whether there are genuine grounds to believe that specific premises might contain items or documents important to the case. In urgent cases where delay threatens loss of evidence, a prosecutor may issue a search decision, but even then the action is subject to subsequent court review.

You should immediately ask to see the decision and read it — this is a legal right, not a privilege. The document must specify: which case is the basis, which premises are subject to search, what exactly is being sought, and whose decision permits it. Anything beyond the specified scope — other premises, items clearly unrelated to the case — formally lies outside the investigators' authority. In practice, boundaries are interpreted broadly: the phrase "documents and electronic media related to business activity" covers almost all equipment in an office. Therefore, the most important thing is not to argue about the decision's scope on-site, but to carefully record what was sought and seized so you can later challenge actions that exceeded authorized limits.

Separately, remember advokāta profesionālais noslēpums — lawyer-client privilege. Correspondence with a lawyer, defense materials, and other privileged information are not subject to seizure on general grounds, and you should state this directly if such correspondence exists among documents or on devices.

How to Behave During a Search

How a person behaves in the first minutes of a search often affects the course of the case more than any subsequent legal steps. A few rules are worth knowing in advance rather than remembering under stress.

Verify Persons and Documents

Before admitting anyone to the premises, ask to see service badges and the search decision. Write down or photograph surnames and positions of those present — this will be needed if you have to challenge the action.

Call a Lawyer Immediately

This is a right that cannot be ignored or postponed. The presence of advokāts on-site dramatically reduces the risk of procedural errors and pressure on a person confused by an unfamiliar legal system.

Right Not to Answer Questions

Officials may ask questions informally, "for clarification." You are not obliged to answer any substantive questions until a lawyer arrives. Silence is not proof of guilt.

Witnesses and Protocol

A search is conducted in the presence of disinterested witnesses, and all actions are recorded in protokols. Read the protocol carefully before signing: it must list exactly all seized items, their serial numbers, and their condition at seizure. If anything doesn't match reality — demand that objections be entered directly into the protocol.

Sign Nothing Without Reading

Signing the protocol means you agree with its contents. If you don't have time to read it or don't understand the wording in Latvian, ask for a translation or defer signing until a lawyer arrives.

Search Isn't Just for Business

The key thing to understand: search and equipment seizure in Latvia are not limited to a company office. The same procedure applies to a private apartment, a car, and sometimes even a phone checked at a border. The reason is simple — the investigation concerns specific human actions, decisions, and correspondence, and these are most often stored on personal devices and in homes, not just in offices.

A search of private premises is formally subject to the same rules as an office search: a decision from an investigating judge or prosecutor is required, along with a protocol and witnesses. But in practice, a home search is much harder to endure: it affects family, children, personal belongings, and this is where people are most inclined to act emotionally. The same principle — verify documents, call a lawyer, never sign without reading — applies at home as it does in an office.

A separate situation is checking a phone or laptop at a border. Formally, this is not always a "search" in the procedural sense, but the result is the same: access to correspondence and documents ends up in others' hands. If asked to unlock a phone without explanation of grounds, remember your right to learn the basis and contact a lawyer before the device is handed over.

Another situation often underestimated is that a search may affect a family member's device, who is formally not involved in the case: a spouse, adult child living in the same apartment. Personal information unrelated to the investigation should be explicitly noted in the protocol as an objection to seizure.

Finally, a person may be called for a search not as a suspect but as a witness in someone else's case — a partner's partner, a former employee, an accountant for several clients. Witness status does not exempt from search, but provides a different scope of rights, so the status by which you are involved should be clarified right away, not guessed afterwards.

Equipment, Phones & Cloud Accounts

The most sensitive part of a search today is not papers but phones, laptops, servers, and cloud accounts where everything is concentrated: correspondence, finances, client data. Here it's worth distinguishing two things. First, the lawful procedure that determines what can be seized and examined; it can only be challenged through legal means described above. Second, how your company protects data in daily operations long before anyone knocks on the door. The second deserves attention in advance, because changing things "during" a search is already too late and risky for the equipment owner.

Disk and device encryption is not a trick but standard corporate practice: data is protected even when a third party gains physical access to the device, until the procedure determines what is subject to examination. This doesn't hinder the investigation but protects your company from leakage of confidential information unrelated to the case. Next comes two-factor authentication on work accounts, separation of work and personal data, and minimal personal correspondence on work equipment: the less extraneous material on a device, the less unrelated information falls within the investigation's scope.

Managed backups separate from main infrastructure allow your company to continue operating even if devices are temporarily seized — a matter of business survival, not procedure evasion. You should also protect against spyware and monitoring software, and consciously reduce the public footprint of company owners. All this is about normal operations and protecting confidential information while the procedure determines what is subject to examination, not about obstructing the investigation: data that has already fallen within lawful seizure cannot be hidden or destroyed.

What Happens to Seized Property

Seizure — izņemšana — is recorded separately from a search, although in practice it happens right after. Everything seized is entered into protokols with a description of each item: brand, model, serial number, condition at seizure. This is why careful reading of the protocol before signing is so important: any inaccuracy makes it harder to return property later.

Seized equipment is transferred for storage and examination within the case. The period during which items can be held is not unlimited: property that is not evidence or is no longer needed for the investigation is subject to return to the owner. In practice, timeframes depend on case complexity, so it's important for a lawyer to regularly remind about the need to return equipment no longer needed by the investigation. Often you can demand a copy of work data from a seized device so your company can continue operations while the original device is under examination — this right should be asserted in writing immediately after seizure.

If the owner believes seizure was unjustified — the equipment was unrelated to the case, seizure exceeded the scope of the search decision, or property is held longer than necessary — the law provides for sūdzība, a complaint against the actions of an investigator or prosecutor, which is reviewed by a court or higher prosecutor. It should be filed with proper wording and based on the protocol from the search.

How Dorosh & Partners Helps

A search is rarely an event people prepare for in advance — which is exactly why most mistakes happen not during the action itself but through lack of preparation. We support clients at all stages: before someone knocks on the door, when it happens, and after — when it comes to returning equipment and restoring business operations.

A preparatory audit is the first and cheapest step: we check how document and data storage is organized, where gaps exist in encryption or access controls, whether there's an action plan for a search, and we train staff — who is allowed to speak with police, who to call immediately, which documents not to show without a lawyer. When a search has begun, speed is most important: our firm's lawyer can arrive on-site to monitor the lawfulness of actions from the first moment, verify authority and the decision, track protocol accuracy, and assert privilege where applicable.

After the action concludes we help restore business operations: prepare requests for copies of work data, monitor timeframes for holding seized equipment, if necessary file sūdzība against actions that exceeded the search decision, and support the client in subsequent proceedings. In cases involving court or criminal charges, we work by the lawyer-and-advocate pair principle: the client speaks with a lawyer in their native language, the lawyer translates the situation into legal terms for advokāts, and oversees the case from start to finish — more about this in the material on court and criminal cases in Latvia.

We also support clients whose business in Latvia regularly undergoes tax or labor inspections before criminal proceedings — discussed in the article on business inspections in Latvia. For companies starting or expanding operations in the country, registration and support can be conveniently combined with a risk audit — this begins the section on business in Latvia. And for those facing a search as a private individual — an employee, family member of a suspect — we address relevant issues within the migration in Latvia section. If a search has already happened or is expected soon, it's best not to wait — book a consultation to get an action plan instead of acting blindly.

Questions and Answers

Can I refuse investigators access to my apartment or office?

No, if they have a valid decision from an investigating judge or prosecutor — izmeklēšanas tiesneša lēmums. Refusing access when such a decision exists won't stop the search, only complicate your situation. You have the right to verify the document and the identities of those present before admitting them.

Am I obligated to unlock my phone or provide a computer password?

This is one of the questions where it's easy to make a mistake without a lawyer: your obligation depends on the specific circumstances of the case and your procedural status. Calling a lawyer before any action with the device is the concrete way to avoid a mistake that's hard to correct later.

What if personal equipment unrelated to the case was seized?

This should be noted immediately in the protocol as an objection, and after the search concludes, submit an official request for return. If the request is ignored without grounds, the next step is sūdzība to a court or higher prosecutor.

Can a search affect a family member not involved in the case?

Yes, if the relative lives in the same premises or their device allegedly contains data related to the case. Personal information clearly unrelated to the investigation should be directly marked in the protocol as not subject to seizure.

How long can seized equipment be held?

The law doesn't set a single fixed timeframe for all cases: duration depends on case complexity. But equipment no longer needed by the investigation is subject to return, and a lawyer can demand specifics about timeframes and file a complaint for unjustified delay.

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