Nearly a decade after a Philadelphia family launched a lawsuit to save their home from the city’s abusive forfeiture program, the case ends with reforms in place to protect property owners, compensation paid out to victims of the city’s forfeiture machine, and a distribution of unclaimed settlement funds to local charities. In the beginning of 2021, the Institute for Justice (IJ) secured final approval of two consent decrees to end a class action lawsuit on behalf of people who had homes, cash and cars wrongfully seized. While one decree established reforms to prevent abuse in the future, the other created a $3 million fund to compensate forfeiture victims.Nearly 2,400 individuals received awards that averaged $1,476. The Institute for Justice then selected Philadelphia charities that are working in the city’s most affected communities to receive approximately $282,000 in unclaimed funds.
