Criminal Forfeiture Process Act

Civil forfeiture allows the government to seize cars, cash, and other property with few safeguards for property owners. 

To lose your property in most states, prosecutors do not have to charge you, let alone convict you of a crime. Worse, most states allow police and prosecutors to keep most of the forfeited property to supplement their budgets. 

These civil laws treat property as guilty until a property owner hires a lawyer, goes to civil court, and obtains an order forcing the government to return their property. This costly and expensive civil process causes more than 80% of owners in some states to not even try to get back their property. 

The Institute for Justice’s report Policing for Profit: The Abuse of Civil Asset Forfeiture identified only seven states with forfeiture laws and practices rated as “B” or higher. 

Seven is too few. 

To address these shortcomings, IJ enlisted prosecutors and defense attorneys to draft a model criminal forfeiture process that state legislators and governors can enact in full or in part. 

The model rests on two core principles: (1) police and prosecutors should not profit from forfeiture; and (2) an owner should be found guilty of a crime before the state takes final title to their property in criminal court. 

As part of its commitment to protecting property and due process rights, IJ has launched a campaign to end civil forfeiture and replace it with criminal forfeiture through litigation, legislation, and public advocacy. 

This model is an important component of IJ’s efforts to ensure that every American and their property is safe from government abuse.