Criminal Defense Lawyers

Federal Agents Took My Car – How Do I Get It Back

Federal agents just drove away in your car. Maybe it happened during a traffic stop. Maybe they came to your house with a seizure warrant. Maybe they took it from a parking lot while you weren’t even there. However it happened, your vehicle is now in federal custody and you have no idea if you’ll ever see it again. Here’s the first thing you need to understand: in civil asset forfeiture, the government isn’t charging YOU with a crime. They’re charging your car. The case will literally be titled something like “United States v. One 2019 Ford F-150.” Your car is the defendant. And under civil forfeiture law, your car is presumed guilty until you prove it innocent.

Welcome to Spodek Law Group. We handle federal asset forfeiture cases regularly. The second thing you need to understand is this: you are racing against deadlines that start the moment your car is seized. Miss a deadline by even one day and your vehicle is gone permanently – forfeited to the federal government without any court ever reviewing whether the seizure was justified. The system is designed to make recovery difficult and expensive. Most people give up because fighting costs more than their car is worth. The government knows this. They’re counting on it.

Civil asset forfeiture has exploded in recent decades. From 2000 to 2019, federal and state governments reported at least $68.8 billion in civil forfeiture revenue. The Department of Justice’s forfeiture fund grew from $93.7 million in 1986 to $4.5 billion in 2014 – an increase of 4,667%. 84% of all federal forfeitures are civil, not criminal. That means in the vast majority of cases, the government takes property without ever convicting anyone of a crime. Your car can be seized and kept forever even if you’re never charged with anything.

The Numbers That Explain Why This Happens

Heres why federal agents seize so many vehicles. There’s money in it. Serious money. And that money flows directly back to law enforcement agencies.

Through something called equitable sharing, state and local police can partner with federal agencies on seizures. The federal government processes the forfeiture under federal law – which often has fewer protections then state law – and returns up to 80% of the proceeds to the local police department that made the seizure. This creates a direct financial incentive for police to seize as many assets as possible.

The DEA alone seized over $441 million in assets in fiscal year 2022. Philadelphia has seized more then 3,000 vehicles in the past eleven years. These arent isolated incidents. This is systematic. Police departments across the country depend on forfeiture revenue to fund there operations. Some agencies get a significant portion of there budget from seized assets.

The system meant to “take the profit out of crime” has become a profit center for law enforcement. Thats not rhetoric. Thats the documented reality of how civil forfeiture operates in America. Your car isnt just being seized becuase agents suspect criminal activity. Your car is being seized becuase taking it generates revenue.

Civil vs Criminal Forfeiture – The Critical Difference

Most people assume that the government has to convict you of something before they can take your property. That assumption is completely wrong.

There are three types of forfeiture under federal law. Criminal forfeiture requires a conviction – if your found guilty, the government can seize property connected to your crime. Civil judicial forfeiture goes through court but dosent require any criminal conviction. Administrative forfeiture dosent require court involvement at all for property worth less then $500,000.

Most vehicle seizures fall into the second and third categories. The government can take your car, process it administratively, and keep it forever – all without ever charging you with a crime, all without any judge ever reviewing wheather the seizure was justified.

Heres the paradox that makes civil forfeiture so dangerous. In a criminal case, your presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. In civil forfeiture, your property is presumed guilty. The burden shifts to YOU to prove your car is innocent. You have to demonstrate that your vehicle wasnt connected to any criminal activity – which means proving a negative.

The question isnt “am I guilty.” The question is “can I prove my car is innocent.” Those are very different questions with very different answers.

The Deadlines That Destroy People

OK so heres were it gets technicaly dangerous. Civil forfeiture has strict deadlines, and missing them is catastrophic.

After seizing your vehicle, the government must mail you a notice within 60 days. That notice tells you what was seized, why, and how to contest the forfeiture. The notice must also be published online for 30 consecutive days on forfeiture.gov.

From the date of the notice letter, you have 35 days to file a claim. If you dont receive the letter, you have 30 days from the final publication date. Miss this deadline and your vehicle is administratively forfeited – declared government property with the same legal force as a court order. No second chances. No excuses.

If you file a valid claim, the government then has 90 days to either return your property or file a civil forfeiture complaint in federal court. If they file a complaint, you have 20 days to file an answer. Miss that deadline and you lose by default.

Heres the hidden trap. These deadlines are absolutely rigid. Courts have rejected claims filed one day late. If you were traveling, if you didn’t receive the notice, if you were dealing with a family emergency – none of that matters. The deadline passes and your car belongs to the government.

Todd Spodek tells every forfeiture client the same thing: the first call you make after your car is seized should be to an attorney. Not next week. Not when you “figure out whats going on.” Immediately. Every day that passes is a day closer to an irreversible deadline.

The Innocent Owner Defense

Federal law does provide whats called an “innocent owner defense.” Under 18 U.S.C. § 983(d), you can contest forfeiture by proving you had no knowledge of any illegal use of your property and that you took reasonable steps to prevent such use.

That sounds protective. In practice, its extremly difficult to prove.

Heres the uncomfortable truth. Even completly innocent people lose there property under civil forfeiture. Consider Lena Sutton of Alabama. She lent her car to a friend to run an errand. Police pulled over the friend and found methamphetamine in the vehicle. Ms. Sutton wasnt driving. She wasnt even in the car. She had no idea her friend was carrying drugs. Her car was seized anyway.

Ms. Sutton eventualy won her case on innocent owner grounds. But it took over a year to get her car back. A year without transportation. A year of legal battles. A year becuase she made the mistake of lending her car to someone.

Consider Tina Bennis of Michigan. She co-owned a car with her husband. Her husband was arrested for soliciting sex workers in the vehicle. Ms. Bennis had absolutly no knowledge of what her husband was doing. She was a completly innocent co-owner. The government seized the car anyway – and the Supreme Court ruled the forfeiture was constitutional. She lost her half of the car becuase of her husbands actions that she knew nothing about.

Being innocent dosent mean you automaticaly win. It means you have a defense you can raise – if you file in time, if you can afford a lawyer, if you can navigate an extremly complex legal process, and if you can prove your innocence to the governments satisfaction.

The Equitable Sharing Loophole

Heres something that should concern every vehicle owner. Many states have reformed there forfeiture laws to require criminal convictions before property can be taken. These reforms were supposed to protect citizens from abusive seizures. But theres a loophole that renders those protections meaningless.

Its called equitable sharing. State or local police make a seizure under state law. Then they “adopt” the seizure to the federal government. The federal government processes the forfeiture under federal law – which often has fewer protections then state law. Up to 80% of the proceeds go back to the state or local agency that made the original seizure.

This means your states forfeiture reforms dont protect you if police can simply hand your case to the feds. And they do. Regularaly. Equitable sharing lets law enforcement bypass whatever restrictions your state legislature enacted.

The financial incentive is obvious. An agency that might get nothing under strict state forfeiture laws can get 80% of your cars value by partnering with federal agencies. Reform advocates have called this the “equitable sharing loophole” and pushed for federal legislation to close it. So far, those efforts havent succeeded.

The Real Cost of Fighting Back

Heres the inversion that keeps most people from challenging forfeitures. Even when you win, you lose.

Say your car is worth $15,000. To contest the forfeiture, youll need to hire an attorney. Federal forfeiture law is complex and technical. A competent lawyer might charge $5,000 to $10,000 to handle your case. Thats assuming everything goes smoothly and the case dosent drag on for months.

So the math looks like this: spend $10,000 to maybe get back a $15,000 car. And thats if you win. If you lose, you get nothing and still owe the legal fees. For many people, the rational economic choice is to simply surrender there property.

The government knows this. Thats why most forfeitures are uncontested. People calculate that fighting costs more then the property is worth and walk away. The government keeps assets it might never have been able to prove were connected to any crime – because nobody could afford to challenge the seizure.

This is what advocates call “legal theft.” The system is structured to make fighting back economically irrational for most property owners. Even innocent owners. Even people who would definitely win if they contested.

The Administrative Forfeiture Trap

Heres something that catches most people completely off guard. Administrative forfeiture dosent involve any court at all. For property worth less then $500,000 – which includes almost every vehicle – the seizing agency can declare your car forfeited without any judge ever reviewing the case.

This is how it works. Federal agents seize your car. They send you a notice. You have 35 days to file a claim. If you dont file, the agency’s administrative officer simply declares your vehicle forfeited. That declaration has the same legal effect as a final court judgment. Your car becomes government property. Forever.

No hearing. No judge. No opportunity to present evidence. Just a bureaucratic declaration and your car is gone.

Most federal forfeitures are uncontested. Think about what that means. The government takes property from thousands of people every year, and most of those people never even attempt to get it back. Not becuase they dont care about there property. Becuase the system is designed to make fighting back so difficult, so expensive, and so confusing that surrender seems like the only realistic option.

And once administrative forfeiture happens, challenging it becomes nearly impossible. Courts have extremly limited authority to review administrative forfeitures after the fact. If you missed your deadline, if you filed incorrectly, if you didnt understand the process – to bad. The forfeiture stands.

This is why the notice is so critical. That piece of paper that arrives in the mail isnt just informational. Its the starting gun for your deadline. If you throw it away, if you ignore it, if you “deal with it later” – your car is already gone.

The Hidden Costs Nobody Mentions

Even if you successfully contest forfeiture and get your car back, the victory comes with costs nobody warns you about.

First, theres the storage fees. While your car sits in government custody awaiting resolution of your case – which can take months or over a year – those fees accumulate. Depending on the jurisdiction and storage facility, you could owe thousands of dollars just to retrieve your own vehicle. Some people have gotten there cars back only to discover they owe more in storage then the car is worth.

Second, theres the condition of your vehicle. Seized cars sit in impound lots. There not maintained. There not driven. Batteries die. Tires deflate. Mechanical systems deteriorate. The car you get back might not be the car that was taken. You may face repair bills just to make it driveable again.

Third, theres the opportunity cost. For however long this process takes – and it will take longer then you expect – your without reliable transportation. You have to figure out how to get to work. How to pick up your kids. How to live your life. Some people lose jobs because they have no way to get there. Others spend thousands on rental cars or ride-sharing while waiting for there case to resolve.

Fourth – and this is the one that makes people furious – you may owe the governments legal fees even if you win. CAFRA allows successful claimants to recover there attorney fees from the government in some circumstances, but that dosent happen automaticaly. And if you lose on any technical ground, you get nothing – and still owe your own lawyer.

The true cost of civil forfeiture isnt just the value of your car. Its the storage fees, the repairs, the lost transportation, the legal fees, the time, and the stress. All of that adds up. For many people, it adds up to more then there vehicle was worth in the first place.

Why Innocent Owners Still Lose

Heres something that should disturb everyone who believes in due process. Being innocent dosent guarantee you get your property back.

The innocent owner defense requires you to prove several things. You had no knowledge of any criminal use of your property. You took reasonable steps to prevent such use. Your ownership is legitimate – not a sham to hide assets.

But “reasonable steps” is a judgement call. What counts as reasonable? If you lent your car to someone, should you have known they were involved in illegal activity? If your spouse used the family car for something criminal, were you “willfully blind” to warning signs? Judges interpret these standards differently. What succeeds in one courtroom fails in another.

And remember the burden of proof. You have to prove your innocence. The government dosent have to prove you knew anything. They seized first. Now you have to convince a court to give it back. Thats a fundamentally different position then having to prove your guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

The Bennis case is the worst example. The Supreme Court ruled that Michigan could forfeit Tina Benniss half-interest in a car her husband used to solicit sex workers – even though she had absolutely no knowledge of what he was doing. The Court said the government’s interest in deterring illegal use of property was sufficient justification. An innocent woman lost her property because someone else committed a crime with it.

If the Supreme Court says thats constitutional, imagine what happens in lower courts where innocent owners dont have years of appeals and high-powered lawyers.

What You Should Do Right Now

If federal agents seized your car, heres exactly what you should do:

Find out which agency seized your vehicle. Was it DEA, FBI, ATF, HSI, or someone else? The seizing agency determines which procedures apply and were notices will come from.

Get a copy of any paperwork. Agents should have given you a receipt or property voucher. This document identifies your vehicle, explains why it was seized, and provides contact information. Keep this paperwork safe.

Watch for the notice of forfeiture. It will come by mail and be published on forfeiture.gov. This notice contains critical information including your deadline to file a claim. Do not ignore this notice.

Hire a federal asset forfeiture attorney immediatly. The 35-day deadline to file a claim is not negotiable. If you wait to see what happens, you may run out of time to contest. An experienced attorney can file a proper claim and guide you through the process.

Do NOT attempt to negotiate directly with the seizing agency. Anything you say can and will be used against you. Let your attorney handle all communications.

Document your innocent ownership. Gather any evidence showing that you had no knowledge of illegal activity involving your vehicle. Registration documents, insurance records, loan papers – anything establishing that the car is legitimately yours and was not purchased with criminal proceeds.

Prepare for a long process. Even successful innocent owner claims can take months or over a year to resolve. Your car may sit in government custody the entire time. Budget accordingly.

Todd Spodek tells every forfeiture client that time is the enemy. The government has your property. You have deadlines. Every day you spend confused or hoping the problem goes away is a day closer to losing your vehicle forever.

Call Spodek Law Group at 212-300-5196. Before your deadline passes. Before you file something incorrectly. Before the government turns your temporary seizure into a permanent forfeiture.

Civil forfeiture is designed to separate people from there property quickly and permanently. The only way to beat that system is to understand it and act faster then it expects you to.