Reason: Most Civil Forfeiture Victims Never See the Inside of a Courtroom

Reason: Most Civil Forfeiture Victims Never See the Inside of a Courtroom by J.D. Tuccille (“Modest reforms have helped, but civil forfeiture remains legalized theft by government agencies.” “Two years ago, the Netflix film Rebel Ridge turned a common law enforcement tactic into a cinematic study of injustice. In fictionalized form, the movie brought home to audiences the reality that civil asset forfeiture is nothing more than legalized theft. Unfortunately, as documented in a recent Institute for Justice (I.J.) report, while several states have sought to reform the use of civil forfeiture, it remains a source of profit for many law enforcement agencies and a cause of grief to unlucky victims who rarely get to argue their cases in a courtroom … ‘Most forfeitures never reach a courtroom, available data show. For example, in a large sample of Indiana cases, just 4% were decided by a judge. Instead, forfeiture typically happens by default,’ the recent report notes.”)