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Judicial Forfeiture: Filing the Complaint, Claim and Answer - Chapter 7 - Asset Forfeiture Law in the United States - Third Edition
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22073
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Originally from Asset Forfeiture Law in the United States, Third Edition
§ 7-1 Overview
This chapter discusses the procedures that the Government must follow when initiating a civil judicial forfeiture action, and the procedures that the claimant must follow if he or she wishes to contest it.
After a brief introduction to the key statutes and rules, it discusses the deadlines for commencing a civil forfeiture action, the alternative ways in which the Government can comply with them, the situations in which the deadlines do not apply, and the sanctions imposed when the Government does not commence an action in a timely way. Next, it discusses the procedure for commencing a civil forfeiture action, including the procedure for obtaining jurisdiction over the property and the requirements for providing notice to potential claimants.
The discussion then turns to the issues that have generated the most controversy and case law – what the civil forfeiture complaint must set forth in terms of the factual basis for the forfeiture and the standard for ruling on a motion to dismiss the complaint.
Finally, the chapter concludes with a discussion of the requirements imposed on the claimant for filing a claim to the property and an answer to the Government’s complaint, and the procedures available to the Government for obtaining a default judgment if no one files a timely claim.
In general, the procedures discussed in this chapter apply equally to forfeiture actions involving real property and those involving personal property. To the extent that the procedures involving real property differ from the usual procedures – as they do with respect to obtaining jurisdiction over the property and providing notice to the property owner – the discussion refers the reader back to Chapter 6 and its discussion of the procedures in 18 U.S.C. § 985.
Stefan D. Cassella, as a federal prosecutor, was one of the federal government's leading experts on asset forfeiture law for over thirty years, and now serves as an expert witness and consultant to law enforcement agencies and the financial sector as the CEO of AssetForfeitureLaw, LLC.
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