§ 1331.Return of property; directions to clerk and claiming agent

Section 1331 gives a way to unwind an attachment once it has served its purpose in a forfeiture case. Any interested person -- the defendant, a claimant, a lender with a lien on the property, or the claiming authority itself -- can move for an order telling the county clerk to cancel the notice of attachment and telling the claiming agent to return, release, assign, or account for the seized property or its proceeds.

The statute builds in protection for the parties who share an interest in the outcome. Notice must reach the claiming agent and every party to the action, plus the claiming authority and plaintiffs under any other attachment orders, and any judgment creditors holding executions against the same property. That spread of notice keeps one attaching creditor from quietly walking off with property that others have a competing claim on.

Before property moves, the claiming agent's fees and expenses get paid. The court can also order the claiming agent to file additional inventories or accountings, which gives the parties, and the court, a paper trail showing what came in, what went out, and what remains.