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⚖️ Property seizure 🚫 Losing rights
forfeiture

forfeiture

11 8.2
When the state takes property, like cars or money, because it is connected to crime without a conviction
  • noun
  • /ˈfɔrˌfɪtʃər/
  • Formal
translation icon : decomiso
  • Prosecutors can also initiate civil forfeiture proceedings to seize property and money involved in illegal drug activity.
  • civil forfeiture
  • forfeiture proceedings
  • asset forfeiture

We have adoptive forfeiture, which you know, Donald Trump put in place and Joe Biden hasn't gotten rid of.

Examples

  • The United States also has used civil forfeiture as an enforcement mechanism.

    Academic text (2006)

  • All proceeds from civil forfeiture flow to the state general fund or the local governing body.

    Blog text (32)

  • The law says that they are fair game in asset forfeiture cases.

    Blog text (33)

  • I still want to see someone challenge a civil forfeiture as a taking without just compensation.

    Blog text (10)

  • The city would also receive forfeiture monies from various drug busts after the cases were adjudicated.

    Blog text (25)

  • Increasingly, defendants are claiming double jeopardy when they are subjected to civil forfeiture proceedings along with criminal prosecutions stemming from the same alleged offenses.

    Academic text (1995)

  • The court approved the government's request for the forfeiture of the assets linked to criminal activity.

  • Civil forfeiture allows authorities to seize property even without a criminal conviction.

  • Many people are unaware that forfeiture can occur when property is linked to illegal actions.

Synonyms

confiscation
vsforfeiture
15 5.4

An authority takes someone's property as a punishment

is used to take assets tied to alleged crime without conviction
dispossession
vsforfeiture
  • Specialized
3 8.2

A legal loss of land, property or other things someone owns

is specific to state seizure of assets linked to suspected crime
distrainment
vsforfeiture
  • UK
9.9

Property taken by legal order to pay a debt

is about seizing assets because of suspected criminal connection not debt

Antonyms

to release
∞ 1.8

To let someone or something go free from being held

return
231 1.0

An act of giving something back to its owner

How Severe

forfeiture
  • Formal
11 8.2
confiscation
15 5.4
expropriation
  • Formal
3 9.1
seizure
  • Formal
71 6.1
requisition
  • Formal
8.8
taking
68 1.7

Surface Forms

forfeiture singular
forfeitures plural

Morphology

forfeiture = forfeit (semi-transparent) = forfeit + ure

The legal sense (state seizure or the process) is an extension of the basic 'act of losing' sense and is somewhat specialized, so learners may not fully predict the procedural/legal nuance from the base alone.

Etymology

Forfeiture in law comes from the same verb forfeit, meaning 'to lose something as a penalty', and it became the name for the state's right to take property connected to a crime. So, when police take a car or money because of illegal activity, that is called a forfeiture.