When government can seize your property | What is civil forfeiture?

Описание: Civil forfeiture is a law that allows police to take, keep, and profit from someone's property without even charging them with a crime—much less convicting them of one. Matt Miller, senior attorney for the Goldwater Institute, explains more about what this law is and how it is being used in America today.

Police can use civil forfeiture to seize property that is merely suspected of involvement in criminal activity. Unlike criminal forfeiture, the government does not need to prove that a crime occurred. In Arizona, no one even has to be charged with a crime for their property to be confiscated. That makes it easy and lucrative for the government to take and keep property, regardless of whether the owner was guilty or innocent. It is such an effective tool that hundreds of millions of dollars are forfeited in just this way every year across America.

Once the property is seized, it is up to the owner of the property to hire a lawyer and go to court to attempt to get his or her property back. No attorney is provided by the government, which means the property owner will need to spend thousands of dollars to even get into court. Furthermore, unlike in criminal cases, the government does not have to prove its case “beyond a reasonable doubt.” It must merely show by “clear and convincing” evidence that the property was being used in connection with a crime. (This standard was actually strengthened, from “preponderance of the evidence,” in 2017.)

Innocent owners—whose property was used by someone else—face an additional hurdle. Arizona requires them to show that they “did not know, and could not reasonably have known” 7 that their property would be used in the commission of a crime. In other words, Arizona requires innocent owners to prove a negative, a notoriously challenging burden of proof in legal cases. If the owner is lucky enough to get property back, whoever held it still gets a paycheck because the government and their tow companies can charge hundreds or even thousands of dollars just for the privilege of having them confiscate and hold that property.