How to Claim Seized Property and Fight Forfeiture

To get seized property back from the federal government, you file a sworn written claim with the seizing agency before the deadline printed on your seizure notice. That single step is how to claim seized property from federal forfeiture and force the government to justify the seizure in federal court instead of taking permanent ownership through an administrative process. Civil forfeiture is a legal action against the property itself, so the government does not have to charge or convict you of a crime to keep what it took.¹ Miss the deadline or file the wrong document, and you can lose the property with no hearing at all.

Read the Seizure Notice First

Every deadline, address, and case reference you need is on the notice the agency sends you. It must describe the seized property, state the date and location of the seizure, cite the legal authority, name the official handling the case, give the address where you send your claim, and state your deadline for responding.² Keep the original somewhere safe. Every letter, claim, and court filing from here on references those details.

The Deadline You Cannot Miss

The filing deadline depends on how you were notified. If the agency mailed you a personal written notice, you have at least 35 days from the date it was sent. If you never received a mailed notice and are responding to a published notice instead, the deadline is at least 30 days after the last date of publication.³ The exact date is on your notice. Circle it.

If you miss it, the agency can forfeit your property administratively, meaning it takes permanent ownership without ever going to court.⁴ There is no grace period and no appeal. Most people who lose seized property lose it here, not on the merits.

Claim or Petition for Remission? Choose Carefully

The notice usually offers two options, and picking the wrong one can cost you the right to fight the seizure in court.

A claim contests the forfeiture. It stops the administrative process and forces the government to justify the seizure to a federal judge.

A petition for remission or mitigation is a different animal. It concedes that the seizure was lawful and asks the same agency that took your property to give some or all of it back as a matter of discretion. You are appealing to the seizing agency, not to a court.

If you want to fight the seizure, file a claim. Everything below assumes that is your goal.

What Your Claim Must Contain

Federal regulations do not require a specific form, though most agencies provide one on request or on their websites.⁵ Whether you use the agency form or draft your own, the claim must include three things:

A description of the specific property you are claiming, matching the seizure notice as closely as possible.
A statement of your interest in the property, identifying yourself and explaining your ownership or other legal stake.
A sworn statement, made by you personally under penalty of perjury. An attorney signing on your behalf does not satisfy this, and a notary acknowledgment alone is not enough.⁶

Supporting documents like titles, deeds, receipts, or bank records are not required, but including them helps show your interest is real.⁵ If your claim has a defect, the agency may give you a chance to fix it, but do not count on that. Get it right the first time.

How to Send the Claim

Send the claim to the address printed on the seizure notice. It goes to the seizing agency, not to a court at this stage.⁵ If the notice does not include an address, forfeiture.gov lists mailing addresses for every federal agency that conducts forfeitures.

Some agencies accept online filings and generate an electronic receipt. If you mail your claim, use certified mail with return receipt so you can prove when you sent it. If you deliver it in person, ask for a time-stamped copy. The deadline is measured by the date you file, not the date the agency opens the envelope, but delivery proof protects you if timing is ever disputed.

You do not have to post a bond to file a claim in a federal forfeiture case.⁶ That barrier existed under older law and is gone for the vast majority of federal cases today.

What Happens After the Agency Receives Your Claim

A valid claim stops the administrative forfeiture. The government then has 90 days to either return the property or file a formal civil forfeiture complaint in federal district court. A court can extend the 90 days for good cause. If the government does neither and also fails to obtain a criminal indictment involving the property, it must release your property promptly and cannot pursue civil forfeiture of the same property for the same underlying offense.³

If the government does file a complaint, the case moves to federal district court and new deadlines begin. You have 30 days after being served with the complaint to file a claim in the judicial proceeding, and 20 days after filing that claim to submit a formal answer to the complaint.³ These are separate from your earlier administrative deadline, and missing them can end the case just as quickly.

Fighting the Case in Court

At trial, the government must prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the property is subject to forfeiture. When its theory is that the property was used to commit or facilitate a crime, it must also show a substantial connection between the property and the offense.³ Preponderance means more likely than not, a lower bar than the beyond-a-reasonable-doubt standard in a criminal case. The government can also use evidence gathered after it files the complaint, so the record can keep growing during litigation.

The Innocent Owner Defense

The most common defense is proving you are an innocent owner. You carry the burden here, by a preponderance of the evidence.³ How it works depends on when you got your interest in the property.

If you owned the property before the illegal conduct, you qualify if you either did not know about the conduct or, once you learned, took all reasonable steps under the circumstances to stop it. Reasonable steps can include contacting law enforcement or revoking permission for the person to use the property. The law does not require you to take any action that would put you or anyone else in physical danger.³

If you acquired the property after the conduct, you qualify if you were a good-faith buyer who paid fair value and had no reason to believe the property was subject to forfeiture. There is a separate protection for a primary residence received through marriage, divorce, or inheritance, even without paying value for it, as long as the property is not traceable to criminal proceeds.³

Paying for a Lawyer

Civil forfeiture is a civil case, so there is no automatic right to a court-appointed lawyer the way there is in criminal court. In most cases, you hire and pay for your own attorney. Federal law creates two narrow exceptions.

If you already have court-appointed counsel in a related criminal case and cannot afford separate forfeiture counsel, the court may authorize that same attorney to represent you in the forfeiture case. The court will look at whether you have legitimate standing and whether the claim appears made in good faith.³

If the seized property is your primary residence and you cannot afford a lawyer, the court must ensure you are represented by a Legal Services Corporation attorney. The court sets the compensation, and LSC can recover reasonable fees regardless of outcome.³

Recovering Fees and Interest if You Win

If you substantially prevail, the government must pay your reasonable attorney fees and litigation costs.⁷ For seized cash or financial instruments, you may also recover interest that accrued from the date of seizure.

There are limits. You cannot recover fees if you are convicted of a crime for which the property was forfeitable. If the court rules partly for you and partly for the government, the fee award is reduced proportionally. In cases with multiple claimants to the same property, the government is not liable for your fees if it promptly recognized your claim, returned your share without unnecessary delay, and prevailed against at least one other claimant.⁷

If Your Property Comes Back Damaged

The federal government is generally immune from suits over property held by law enforcement, but there is a specific exception for property seized for civil forfeiture. If your property is damaged or lost in government custody, you can file a claim for the damage as long as your interest in the property was not forfeited, your interest was not returned through remission or mitigation, and you were not convicted of a related crime.⁸ Vehicles, electronics, and cash-generating businesses can lose real value during months or years in storage, and this statute is the route to compensation.

State Seizures Are a Different Process

Everything above applies to federal forfeiture. If a state or local agency seized your property under state law, the deadlines, filing rules, burden of proof, and available defenses can be substantially different. Some states require a criminal conviction before permanent forfeiture. Others place a heavier burden on the government. Check your state’s forfeiture statutes or consult a local attorney.

One wrinkle: state and local agencies sometimes transfer seized property to federal authorities through a process called equitable sharing, which moves the case into the federal system. If your notice comes from a federal agency, the federal rules described here apply even if local officers physically carried out the seizure.

1
U.S. Department of Justice. Types of Federal Forfeiture
2
eCFR. 28 CFR 8.9 – Notice of Administrative Forfeiture
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 983 – General Rules for Civil Forfeiture Proceedings
4
Federal Bureau of Investigation. Asset Forfeiture
5
Forfeiture.gov. How to File a Claim for Seized Property
6
eCFR. 28 CFR 8.10 – Filing a Claim in an Administrative Forfeiture Proceeding
7
GovInfo. 28 USC 2465 – Return of Property to Claimant; Liability for Wrongful Seizure; Attorney Fees, Costs, and Interest
8
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 2680 – Exceptions