Institute for Justice
Virginia
March 2010
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Scott G. Bullock
President and General Counsel
| Grades |
State Law Evasion Grade | Final Grade |
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Virginia
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Forfeiture Law |
| Virginia’s civil forfeiture laws utterly fail to protect property owners. The government must prove, only by a preponderance of the evidence, that property is related to a crime and subject to forfeiture. In turn, property owners bear the burden of proof for innocent owner claims, effectively making them guilty until proven innocent. Moreover, law enforcement enjoys 100 percent of the proceeds from civil forfeiture. Initially, 90 percent of the receipts go directly to law enforcement agencies that participated in a forfeiture. Thereafter, 10 percent goes to the Department of Criminal Justice Services to be used to promote law enforcement activities. Virginia’s broad laws have enabled the commonwealth to receive, on average, more than $7.2 million per year in forfeiture revenue between 1996 and 2007. |
| Forfeitures as Reported to LEMAS (Drug-related only) |
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| Equitable Sharing Proceeds from the Assets Forfeiture Fund (AFF) |
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| Freedom of Information Data |
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Local law enforcement agencies only (district attorney and task force data not reliable)
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