If police seized your cash or your car in Harris County, the State has 30 days from the seizure to file a forfeiture case (Code of Criminal Procedure Art. 59.04(a)). Once you’re served, your answer is due by the Monday after 20 days have passed. Miss it and the court can hand your property to the agency by default. Call (713) 664-4000 the day you’re served, or before, and we’ll get the answer on file. Texas calls this civil asset forfeiture, and it lets the government keep property it says was tied to a crime.
This is a civil proceeding, not a criminal one, and the defendant in it is the object seized, not its owner. It sounds nonsensical, but “The State of Texas vs. Stack of Money” is not that far-fetched a name for a civil case.
The case decides whether the property goes back to you or to the agency that took it.
The kicker is how little the State has to show. It only has to prove by a preponderance of the evidence (more likely than not) that the property is tied to a crime, and nobody has to be convicted first. An owner who claims to be innocent carries the burden of proving that. Fighting it gets expensive. Legal fees often exceed the value of the seized property, so many asset forfeitures go uncontested.
What to do if your property was seized
Don’t sign anything giving up your claim to the property. Texas law bars an officer from asking you to sign a waiver of your rights to seized property (Code of Criminal Procedure Art. 59.03(d)), so if someone pushed one at you, tell us. Keep the receipt or inventory the officer gave you, and write down who was there and what was said.
And don’t explain where the money came from without a lawyer. What you say in the forfeiture case can be used in the criminal case. We file the answer and push for the return of all or part of the property, often while we fight the criminal charge at the same time.
Uncontested seizures, in the majority of circumstances, are liquidated and added to the budgets of law enforcement agencies. It’s a bad setup. It ties the financial health of the agency to the number of asset seizures it carries out, which rewards the practice. Hooked on this revenue stream, law enforcement bodies become increasingly likely to abuse this system and seize the property of innocent citizens for departmental profit.
Is the government trying to forfeit your property? Then you need to contact Blass Law so we can help you. Don’t wait. We must file an answer by the first Monday after 20 days have passed.
Reviewed by Jay Blass Cohen, founder of Blass Law PLLC, ACS-CHAL Forensic Lawyer-Scientist, certified Drug Recognition Expert, and SFST instructor, serving Houston since 2009. This article is general information, not legal advice for your situation. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
Charged with this in Houston, or worried you’re about to be? Call (713) 664-4000 or fill out the form on this page for a free, confidential consultation. We’ll tell you where your case stands and what we’d do first.