Report highlights major flaws of state civil forfeiture laws, including lack of RTC
03/03/2026, National, Report, Forfeiture (incomplete)
The Institute for Justice has released the 4th Edition of its resource, Policing for Profit: The Abuse of Civil Asset Forfeiture (Mar. 2026). As the Executive Summary notes, “Very few owners who contest forfeiture have legal representation—just 6% in Arizona and 7% in Oregon—likely because it is prohibitively expensive. A straightforward state-court forfeiture case costs an estimated $3,300, nearly twice the median cash forfeiture of $1,678 across 24 states.”
Seven states currently provide a right to counsel in at least some forfeiture matters.
