California Asset Forfeiture Attorney
If police seized your cash, product, or vehicle in California, a clock is already running. Kocot Law is a California asset forfeiture attorney practice focused on cannabis-related seizures, and under California law, your deadline to file a claim can be as short as 30 days from the date you receive the forfeiture notice. Miss it, and the government can keep your property by default: no trial, no hearing, and in many cases no criminal charge ever filed.
What happens after a seizure in California
Civil asset forfeiture is a case against the property, not against you. After a seizure — during a traffic stop, a search, or an enforcement action — the prosecuting agency initiates forfeiture under California’s drug forfeiture statutes.. For personal property under a statutory value threshold, the government can use a streamlined administrative forfeiture: it mails a notice, and if no one files a valid claim in time, the property is forfeited without a judge ever looking at the case.
That’s the trap most people fall into. No arrest and no charges feel like the situation resolved itself. In reality, silence is how the government wins. Filing a claim changes everything. A timely, properly completed claim ends the administrative shortcut and forces the government into court, where it (not you) carries the burden of proof.
The California deadline: as short as 30 days
Once the agency serves its notice of forfeiture, the window to file a claim can be as short as 30 days from receipt. The claim must be filed in the right court, in the right form, and identify your interest in the property. Defective claims can be rejected. Two things to do immediately after any seizure: keep every document you were given (the receipt and any notice control your deadlines), and get the envelope too; mailing dates matter.
Licensed and still seized? You’re exactly who we represent.
Here’s what generalist forfeiture firms miss: a state cannabis license changes how these cases have to be fought. California law provides that commercial cannabis activity conducted under a valid license and in compliance with the law is lawful. Yet licensed operators still deal with seizures, often because banking access remains limited, because cash moves by vehicle, because a distributor’s manifest doesn’t impress every officer at a roadside stop, and because product in transit looks like contraband to anyone who doesn’t read METRC.
Winning these cases means proving licensure, provenance, and compliance in a form a prosecutor or judge will credit: license status, track-and-trace records, transport manifests, invoices, tax filings, and corporate documents assembled into a coherent evidentiary package. This isn’t traditional criminal defense or forfeiture work; it’s cannabis regulatory work deployed in a forfeiture posture. Ryan Kocot has spent a decade building and auditing exactly these compliance records for California operators. When your defense is “this was legal,” you want the attorney who can prove it.
What Kocot Law does in a forfeiture case
- Emergency response — identify the seizing agency, confirm what was taken, and calendar every deadline, usually within one business day
- Claim preparation and filing — timely, properly completed claims in California administrative and judicial forfeiture proceedings
- Return-of-property motions — where the seizure itself was defective or property is being held without proper proceedings (Penal Code §§ 1536, 1540)
- Forfeiture litigation — contesting the government’s case once your claim forces it into court, including innocent-owner defenses
- Licensed-operator evidence packages — licensure, METRC, manifest, and financial documentation proving lawful source and lawful purpose
- Negotiated resolutions — where a negotiated return of some or all property is the fastest sound outcome
- Coordination with criminal defense — if charges are filed or threatened, forfeiture strategy and Fifth Amendment considerations are managed together, not at cross purposes
Why operators hire Ryan Kocot
Ryan Kocot is a cannabis attorney licensed in California, New York, and Massachusetts, with a federal practice covering DEA matters nationwide. Before private practice, he ran legal and compliance for a cannabis company that grew from a startup to a multinational public company — he has built the operational and compliance machinery of a cannabis business from the inside. He is a former Forbes contributor on cannabis law and has served California cannabis operators since 2015.
Frequently asked questions
I wasn’t arrested or charged. Do I still need to act?
Yes — urgently. Civil forfeiture proceeds against the property itself. Doing nothing is often how property is lost by default.
The officers said I can get my money back if I cooperate. Should I talk to them?
Not without counsel. Statements made trying to “clear things up” are routinely used to justify the forfeiture and can create criminal exposure that didn’t exist before. Take the receipt, take the notice, and call an attorney.
I’m a licensed operator. Doesn’t my license protect me?
It should have prevented the seizure, but it won’t automatically get your property back. Licensure is the foundation of your claim, not a substitute for filing one. Documented compliance is what wins these cases.
What if my deadline has already passed?
Call anyway. Depending on the facts (defective notice, service problems, publication issues), options may remain. But every additional day narrows them.
The government’s deadline doesn’t wait. Neither should you.
Call (916) 572-6445 or submit your seizure details now.
Attorney Advertising. This page is for general information only and is not legal advice. Reading it, calling, or submitting a form does not create an attorney-client relationship; no attorney-client relationship is formed unless and until Kocot Law completes a conflict check and both parties sign an engagement letter. Deadlines described are general ranges — the deadline in your case is controlled by your notice and the applicable statute. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.