A court appeal challenging the Miami-Dade County sheriff’s unusual practice of using a private law firm to pursue property seizures on its behalf—and guaranteeing the firm a cut of the proceeds—could change the law surrounding police seizures in Florida and is drawing national attention from think tanks and criminal defense groups.
The appeal, brought by a group of Miami-area mobile phone distributors and retailers who had tens of millions of dollars seized by the Miami-Dade County Sheriff’s Office (MDSO) last year, is the first time Florida state courts have considered whether police departments can pay private law firms on a contingency basis to represent them in civil asset forfeiture cases.
Under civil forfeiture laws, police can seize property suspected of being connected to criminal activity, even when the owner hasn’t been charged with a crime. Several states effectively abolished civil forfeiture in recent years after decades of complaints from civil liberties groups that property owners lacked due process protections…