Obtaining Financial Information 209
sought need to be “particularly described.” Courts have ruled
in a number of cases on search warrants that the defendants
claimed were too broad in their descriptions of the items to
be sought. The established principle is that the items must be
described as best as they can be, to exclude items irrelevant
to the matter at hand.
If a warrant “effectively tells the ofcers to seize only
those records indicating” a specic criminal activity, it will
probably not be considered overbroad, but the language
should be as particular as the ofcers can make it. The Ninth
Circuit allowed a warrant that authorized seizure of “records,
notes, documents indicating the defendant’s involvement
and contr