§ 1311-b.Money judgment.

A forfeiture judgment is only useful if the property it describes can still be found. Section 1311-b addresses what happens when it can't, whether because a defendant spent, hid, or moved it. Once the claiming authority has a forfeiture judgment covering the proceeds, substituted proceeds, an instrumentality, or a real property instrumentality of a crime, it can apply to the same court for a money judgment against the defendant equal to the value of whatever portion of that property it cannot locate.

The section protects the defendant's ability to contest the number the claiming authority proposes: the defendant keeps the right to challenge the valuation underlying the application, and the claiming authority carries the burden of proving that value by a preponderance of the evidence, the same standard that governs most forfeiture disputes against a criminal defendant under section 1311.

This provision works alongside the total-recovery cap in section 1311(8), which limits what a claiming authority can collect across every defendant tied to the same crime, and the criminal sanctions in section 1311(9) for anyone who conceals or dissipates property covered by a provisional remedy or judgment. Read together, they tell a defendant that hiding or spending forfeitable property does not make the claim go away, and it can expose the defendant to both a money judgment and separate criminal liability.