[Stormieweather]

Civil forfeiture is similar in many ways to criminal forfeiture. However, while criminal forfeiture means to impose an additional penalty upon the owner of property for his wrongful conduct, a civil forfeiture action is brought against the property itself. (You will see funny case names arising from civil forfeiture cases, such as "United States v 336 Willow Street".) For criminal forfeiture to result, the owner of the property must be convicted of a crime, whereas civil forfeiture can occur even if the owner is acquitted. In some cases, the property owner won't even be charged with a crime. Civil forfeiture actions must demonstrate "beyond a reasonable doubt" that the property has a sufficient relationship to illegal activity to justify its forfeiture under the law. Criminal cases are tried under the much higher standard of, "Guilty beyond a reasonable doubt."

Example of an asset being involved in forfeiture:

State vs One Thousand Two Hundred Sixy Seven Dollars

Unless provided in statute (as in 18 U.S.C. § 981(a)(2)), innocence of the owner is typically not a defense. Furthermore, courts interpret the statutory defenses stringently. For instance, courts may apply an objective standard to determine if the owner should have had knowledge of the property's illegal use, rather require proof of actual knowledge. The owner may argue that no crime ever occurred, that the government lacked probable cause, or that the property is not closely enough connected to the crime to be considered an instrumentality or proceeds.

Should any of these defenses succeed, the government need simply return the property to the owner. It is not liable to the owner damages caused by the property's detention, including damages resulting during the original seizure or a failure to look after the property while in government custody.

http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/index.php/Forfeiture

This is one of the most abused functions of the police and courts. The CAFRA Act of 2000 is supposed to curb some of the abuse, but the forfeiture laws still tilt heavily towards the police/courts.


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