Civil forfeiture proceedings

The Director starts all civil forfeiture proceedings in the BC Supreme Court. The Director must name as a party to the proceeding the registered owner of the property or a person whom the Director has reason to believe is an unregistered owner of the property or a portion of it. The Director must provide sufficient evidence to satisfy the court that forfeiture should be granted.

The CFO retains lawyers to act on its behalf for all civil forfeiture proceedings. The lawyer’s name and contact information will be noted in the court documents. If you are a defendant and have retained a lawyer to act on your behalf, communication should occur through your lawyer. If you are representing yourself, you can communicate directly with the Director’s lawyer.

To succeed in civil forfeiture proceedings, the Director does not need to prove that a charge was laid or a conviction was registered against any of the people named as a defendant. The Director must establish that the property is either the proceeds or an instrument of unlawful activity and may use evidence gathered by the police as well as evidence gathered through the normal rules of discovery.

If the Director is successful, the next step is for a BC Supreme Court judge to consider whether it would be in the interests of justice to order forfeiture. At this stage a judge may decide to order full forfeiture, order partial forfeiture, or decline to order forfeiture altogether.

The judge may also limit or decline to order forfeiture if a registered or unregistered owner is an “uninvolved interest holder.”