A motion for return of property is required to get seized items back from law enforcement at the conclusion of the case. Tampa criminal lawyers are often asked about whether an individual can get their stuff back after they have been acquitted, pled to or found guilty of specific charges. Anyone that’s ever been associated with a criminal matter understands the sheer volume of things seized by law enforcement in their investigations into criminal cases. For example, if law enforcement comes into your residence and begins seizing items, it’s more likely than not they will take things wholly unassociated with the criminal matter. In order to get these items back, it’s necessary to file a motion for return of property which requests the court enter an order returning those items from either a police department and/or sheriff’s office for that certain amount of time. Otherwise, they will more than likely continue to hold and potentially destroy the items after a given amount of time.
Our office has filed motions for return of property in a number of cases for a number of different items including firearms, cell phones, etc. Unless the State Attorney’s Office agrees to the return of the property, it is necessary to have a hearing before the assigned judge. It is also necessary to notify the applicable law enforcement agency because they actually possess the item.
If you have questions concerning a motion for return of property and/or your Tampa criminal charges, contact the Tampa criminal lawyers of Hackworth Law for a free case consultation. We’ve handled thousands of criminal matters throughout the entire Tampa area and look forward to working with you on a unique strategy to defend your criminal case. If you would like to contact one of our Tampa criminal lawyers immediately, please use the “contact us now” tab in the upper right-hand corner of our website. We appreciate your time and attention to this matter and look forward to working with you in the future.