It’s not unimaginable that someday your car could be seized based on a DUI – so how do you go about getting it back? Here, DUI attorney Claiborne Ferguson of the Claiborne Ferguson Law Firm in Memphis, Tennessee explains what to do. His practice is devoted to DUI defense and capital murder cases. Both require a vast knowledge of science and law, which is why he has extensive training in both areas. Claiborne Ferguson is THE Memphis DUI attorney!
If your car has been seized based on a DUI, or driving on a suspended license, your car has been taken under what is called the civil forfeiture laws. This means that on top of the DUI criminal case, you also have a separate civil case pending.
This case may be handled by the same judge, or as it is here in Tennessee, it may be handled by the Department of Safety and the agency which seized your car. The agency wants to keep your car. They get to sell it. And usually they get to keep all the money.
A Profitable Exercise
Money taken from seizing and selling cars has been used to finance everything from new guns to new police cruisers. Obviously, if the people who seized your vehicle stand to profit from that, they don’t want to give it back to you. You may be able to renegotiate a settlement in which you have to buy your car back from them. Or after a consultation with an attorney you might decide that you want a hearing on these issues.
Sometimes an attorney will tell you to contact your bank or lender which holds the title to your vehicle to negotiate with them to get the car back from the state and to repurchase it from the bank. While that might sound goofy, the whole system is designed to keep that car away from you. And to put that money right back in the pocket of the local police department. Even if you beat your criminal case, you can still lose the civil case and not get your car back.
Sometimes the car simply isn’t worth enough money to justify the legal proceedings to recover your property. The car can be seized regardless of who the owner was, so long as the person who was in control and driving the vehicle committed the offense.
Actual Owner Immaterial
Frequently we get phone calls from mothers who let their sons borrow their cars and end up getting pulled over with a revoked license or for some other crime. Most laws do not take into consideration who the actual owner is, only who was in possession of the vehicle at the time the police made the stop.
So attaining the right legal advice about getting your vehicle back once it has been seized, and having someone help you decide whether financially it’s really worth the effort, can make a big difference. It’s not as straightforward as it may seem, so get the right legal advice from the beginning.
