Asset forfeiture involves confiscation of assets by the state. Civil asset forfeiture suits filed in April 2017, for example, bear case titles such as: United States of America v. $75,000.00 in U.S. Currency; United States of America v. 460 Cottongrass, Teton County, Idaho; and United States of America v. One 2011 Chevrolet Tahoe. This is because the assets or property, not actual individuals, are being sued in these actions.

The use - and alleged misuse - of asset forfeiture laws at the federal, state and local level have long been a subject of spirited public debate. While the objective is to deprive individuals of the alleged proceeds of crime, or of property used in the commission of crime, assets of totally innocent individuals sometimes can end up being confiscated.

There was wide variation in the use of civil asset forfeiture filings among the 93 U.S. Attorney offices during the first seven months of FY 2017. Relative to its population size, the Western District of New York (Buffalo) had the highest rate of filings with over four times the national average. The Southern District of Alabama (Mobile) was second, with three and a half times the national average, while New Mexico was third with a rate that was three times the national average.

In terms of sheer number of suits, the Central District of California (Los Angeles) had the most with a total of 51 civil asset forfeiture cases during the first seven months of FY 2017. Puerto Rico was second with 27 suits filed, followed by the Western District of New York with 23.

For further details on each U.S. Attorney Office, as well as on these national trends, see:

http://trac.syr.edu/tracreports/civil/470/

Each month, TRAC offers a report focused on one area of civil litigation in the U.S. district courts. In addition, subscribers to the TRACFed data service can generate custom reports by district, office, nature of suit or federal jurisdiction. To start, go to:

http://trac.syr.edu/interpreter?tab=civil

If you want to be sure to receive notification whenever updated data become available, sign up at:

http://tracfed.syr.edu/cgi-bin/tracuser.pl?pub=1

or follow us on Twitter @tracreports or like us on Facebook:

http://facebook.com/tracreports

TRAC is self-supporting and depends on foundation grants, individual contributions and subscription fees for the funding needed to obtain, analyze and publish the data we collect on the activities of the US Federal government. To help support TRAC's ongoing efforts, go to:

http://trac.syr.edu/cgi-bin/sponsor/sponsor.pl