I have a pending Chpt 59 forfeiture, possibly the last of a dying breed, that has sailed on out of our office's civil expertise.

Cash is seized on the side of the road, notice and petition are properly filed, and a handwritten "answer" was filed by an attorney within the appropriate amount of time. The accompanying misdemeanor, which turned out to be the only criminal charge filed, is disposed of in County Court by the County Attorney and a different defense attorney.

Said defense attorney files a motion for disposition of property and gets the CCL judge to "return property to defendant's attorney of record." That order gets sent to the agency, then forwarded on to the treasurer, who ultimately cut a check to the defense attorney pursuant to the court order.

Meanwhile, it wasn't until we set the forfeiture for a hearing that we found out about the property disposition order. So now we have a pending forfeiture where the property has been released, by a court without jurisdiction, to an unnamed third party. The last person in the paper trail of possessing the funds is the defense attorney.

Our plan at the moment is to set it for an appearance and see who shows up... then make another plan.

Any useful advice from the folks who do this stuff all the time?

File a non-suit. Attach the order. In the future always tell your agencies and judges that an order to release property DOES NOT resolve or affect your Ch. 59 forfeiture.