State v. $435,000.00

Since 1955, the Legislature has by various statutes prescribed certain procedures for judicial proceedings to forfeit property seized in illicit drug trafficking. Until 1989, those statutes provided that after the State initiated a forfeiture action and a claimant filed a verified answer to recover the property, “a time for hearing on forfeiture shall be set within 30 days” of the filing of the answer.1 Shortly before the Legislature eliminated this provision, a conflict arose among the courts of appeals over its proper application. As it appears that a significant number of cases remain to…