Columbus, OH – On Thursday, The Buckeye Institute filed an amicus brief in United States v. Ross, calling on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to stop the government from gaming the Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act to avoid paying attorneys’ fee—as Congress intended—when the government loses in court.

“The government cannot be allowed to seize someone’s property and then, when it realizes it is going to lose, ask the court to dismiss its case to avoid paying attorneys’ fees,” said David C. Tryon, the director of litigation at The Buckeye Institute. “Mr. Ross won his case by any understanding of the word won, and the lower court wrongly denied him attorneys’ fees.”

The government forced Mr. Ross to run the civil-forfeiture gauntlet, and he incurred substantial attorneys’ fees as a result. When the government realized its case was weak and meritless, it requested a voluntary dismissal. Given that Mr. Ross substantially prevailed in his case and that the government returned all his property, he should have been awarded attorneys’ fees as required by the Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act.

Tryon continued, “If the lower court ruling is not reversed, it will have given the government a roadmap on how to evade the very penalties that the Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act was enacted to impose.”

The Rutherford Institute joined The Buckeye Institute in filing the brief. Joel S. Nolette, an associate at Wiley Rein LLP, is the counsel of record on this brief.

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