ARLINGTON, VA – As Rebel Ridge, the current number one film on Netflix, grips audiences with its gritty tale of police corruption and injustice, its plot is disturbingly close to reality. The movie reflects the numerous injustices surrounding civil forfeiture—a controversial legal practice that allows law enforcement officers to seize and keep property without convicting the owner of a crime. The Institute for Justice (IJ) has long been on the front lines of fighting this injustice, and one of IJ’s current cases mirrors the movie’s plot. Stephen Lara, a former Marine, had his life savings seized during a roadside stop in Nevada. Unlike the film’s protagonist, Terry Richmond, who takes the law into his own hands, Lara has partnered with the Institute for Justice to seek justice through the courts.

“Art sometimes imitates life, and Rebel Ridge captures the grim reality that far too many Americans face,” said Ben Field, an attorney at the Institute for Justice. “While Hollywood often exaggerates for drama, the core of this story is shockingly real: civil forfeiture allows the government to take innocent people’s property without due process. That’s something IJ is fighting to end.”

Rebel Ridge tells the story of Terry Richmond, a former Marine riding his bike through a small town, when he is pulled over by a set of dirty cops. During the stop, the cops, citing “suspicion,” seize the legally obtained cash he was planning to use to bail his cousin out of jail. After enduring the legal runaround, with his money tied up in the bureaucratic maze of civil forfeiture, Terry realizes that the problem goes much deeper. Civil forfeiture is part of a larger web of corruption in the local police department, where officers are over-detaining defendants to keep them quiet. This chilling revelation echoes a real lawsuit the Institute for Justice is currently fighting in Louisiana, challenging unconstitutional over-detention in state prisons.

The true solution to ending the scourge of civil forfeiture—and the broader pattern of systemic corruption the system encourages—is not found in revenge but in legal reform. A bill in Congress called the FAIR Act would go a long way towards fixing the broken civil forfeiture system at the federal level. Numerous states have also already passed important reforms, but much more remains to be done to protect Americans’ property rights from abuse.

“Both the courts and legislatures need to continue to pay close attention to civil forfeiture and its real-world consequences,” said Brian Morris, an attorney at the Institute for Justice. “While progress has been made, there is still much work to do to ensure that innocent people aren’t left fighting for years to reclaim their hard-earned money or property—and that over-detention and other abusive practices are put to an end.”

For more information about Stephen Lara’s case, the over-detention lawsuit in Louisiana, and the Institute for Justices fight against civil forfeiture, please visit www.ij.org.