Civil Forfeiture Allows Police to Seize Any Property They Allege Is Involved in a Crime
Video Transcribed: What is civil asset forfeiture in Oklahoma? I’m Oklahoma attorney, James Wirth. And that’s the topic before us, civil asset forfeiture, and essentially as part of a law enforcement investigation, when they come across proceeds or assets related to violations of controlled, dangerous substance acts, essentially drugs, then there is a statute in Oklahoma that allows that property to become the property of the state, forfeited to the state for the benefit of funding, a DA’s office, police offices, things of that nature. So what is civil asset forfeiture?
It is a legal proceeding where the state is filing in order for property seized to be forfeited to the benefit of the state when they think that there’s a tie to unlawful activity, particularly for violations of controlled, dangerous substance act, drug laws. There are also other asset forfeiture statutes, both in the state of Oklahoma. We don’t see utilized as often.
And also there are federal asset forfeiture statutes, but as far as answering the general question, what does asset forfeiture? That is where the state or the government tries to get assets forfeited to it, after seizing it from people by saying that that is guilty property, guilty money, and the lawsuits actually filed against the money itself rather than the person they took the money from who in the case is the claimant.
They can claim the money and say that it’s lawful money, lawful assets. If you’ve got more specific questions about asset forfeiture, you’re going to want to talk to an attorney confidentially about that. To get that scheduled with somebody at my office, you go online to makelaweasy.com.
