North Dakota Code 19-03.1-36.8 – Reporting
1. As used in this section, “law enforcement agency” means a nonfederal public agency authorized by law or by a government agency or branch to enforce the law and to conduct or engage in investigations or prosecutions for violations of law, including the authority to conduct or engage in seizure and forfeiture of property or to collaborate with a federal agency under federal law to conduct or engage in seizure and forfeiture of property. The term includes a multijurisdictional task force.
Terms Used In North Dakota Code 19-03.1-36.8
- Asset forfeiture: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
- Civil forfeiture: The loss of ownership of property used to conduct illegal activity.
- Counterclaim: A claim that a defendant makes against a plaintiff.
- Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
- following: when used by way of reference to a chapter or other part of a statute means the next preceding or next following chapter or other part. See North Dakota Code 1-01-49
- Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
- Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
- Property: includes property, real and personal. See North Dakota Code 1-01-49
- Settlement: Parties to a lawsuit resolve their difference without having a trial. Settlements often involve the payment of compensation by one party in satisfaction of the other party's claims.
- State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the territories. See North Dakota Code 1-01-49
- written: include "typewriting" and "typewritten" and "printing" and "printed" except in the case of signatures and when the words are used by way of contrast to typewriting and printing. See North Dakota Code 1-01-37
- year: means twelve consecutive months. See North Dakota Code 1-01-33
2. Every civil forfeiture judgment issued by a district court must be made publicly available and include the following information in the findings of fact:
a. Case number of the forfeiture proceeding and the district court where the case was filed.
b. Location of the seizure, including whether the location was a residence or business or occurred during a traffic stop.
c. The crime with which the suspect was charged.
d. The disposition of the suspect’s criminal case.
e. Who filed a claim or counterclaim for the seized property, or whether there was a default in the litigation of the seized property.
f. Date the forfeiture order was issued.
g. Whether a forfeiture settlement agreement was reached. h. The date and the final disposition of the property.
i. Estimated value of the forfeited property.
j. Estimate of the total costs accrued by the law enforcement agency for storage and disposal of the civilly forfeited property.
k. Amount of any attorney fees awarded to owners of seized and forfeited property.
3. Annually, any law enforcement agency that seizes property shall provide to the attorney general a completed civil asset forfeiture case report form for every seizure and the total value of the forfeited property held by the agency at the end of the reporting period.
4. By November first of each year, the attorney general shall submit to the legislative management and the governor a written report summarizing activity in the state for the preceding fiscal year, the type, approximate value, and disposition of any civilly forfeited property, and the amount of proceeds received.
a. Summary data and civilly forfeited property must be disaggregated by agency.
b. The attorney general shall make the report available on the attorney general’s website.
c. The report must include the case reports provided by the law enforcement agencies.
5. The attorney general may recover any costs under this section by withdrawing money from the asset forfeiture fund.
6. A law enforcement agency may use forfeiture proceeds to pay the costs of compiling and reporting data under this section.
7. The data and reports compiled under this section are public information and not exempt from disclosure.
8. The attorney general may require the reporting of additional information not specified in this section. The attorney general shall develop standard forms, processes, and deadlines for annual submission of forfeiture data by law enforcement agencies.
9. If a law enforcement agency fails to file a report within thirty days after the report is due, the attorney general may compel compliance by any means until the report is filed.
10. Any property seized with a value of less than fifty dollars is not required to be included in the written report submitted by the attorney general.
11. A state’s attorney may establish a minimum value amount for seizures in the interests of justice and efficient use of governmental resources in the state’s attorney’s jurisdiction. The minimum value amount may be based on the state’s attorney’s determination of the:
a. Type and number of occurrences of offenses that include the seizure of property; and b. Average value of seized property less the costs to seize and forfeit the property.