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[Terminator2]

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[BagelBites]

First few paragraphs. What a crappy situation. At the very least, they should waive any fees if no charges were filed.

33880.**

(a)*A city, county, or city and county, or a state agency may adopt a regulation, ordinance, or resolution imposing a charge equal to its administrative costs relating to the seizure, impounding, storage, or release of a firearm or ammunition.

(b)*The fee under subdivision (a) shall not exceed the actual costs incurred for the expenses directly related to taking possession of a firearm or ammunition, storing the firearm or ammunition, and surrendering possession of the firearm or ammunition to a licensed firearms dealer or to the owner.

(c)*The administrative costs described in subdivisions (a) and (b) may be waived by the local or state agency upon verifiable proof that the firearm or ammunition was reported stolen at the time the firearm came into the custody or control of the law enforcement agency.

(d)*The following apply to any charges imposed for administrative costs pursuant to this section:

(1)*The charges shall only be imposed on the person claiming title to the firearm or ammunition.

(2)*Any charges shall be collected by the local or state authority only from the person claiming title to the firearm or ammunition.

(3)*The charges shall be in addition to any other charges authorized or imposed pursuant to this code.

(4)*A charge shall not be imposed for a hearing or appeal relating to the removal, impound, storage, or release of a firearm or ammunition, unless that hearing or appeal was requested in writing by the legal owner of the firearm or ammunition. In addition, the charge may be imposed only upon the person requesting that hearing or appeal.

(e)*Costs for a hearing or appeal related to the release of a firearm or ammunition shall not be charged to the legal owner who redeems the firearm or ammunition, unless the legal owner voluntarily requests the poststorage hearing or appeal. A city, county, city and county, or state agency shall not require a legal owner to request a poststorage hearing as a requirement for release of the firearm or ammunition to the legal owner.

[BagelBites]

Also, DOJ is required by law to complete the LEGR process in 30 days. From what I've read in this forum and others, I don't think that is ever the case.

33865.**

(a)*When the Department of Justice receives a completed application pursuant to Section 33850 accompanied by the fee required pursuant to Section 33860, it shall conduct an eligibility check of the applicant to determine whether the applicant is eligible to possess a firearm.

(b)*The department shall have 30 days from the date of receipt to complete the background check, unless the background check is delayed by circumstances beyond the control of the department. The applicant may contact the department to inquire about the reason for a delay.

[terry4130]

[Jeepergeo]

If this guy was my friend and I knew in my brain, heart, and soul that no domestic violence whatsoever occurred in this particular event or ever before with this individual, I'd gift or loan him the money to retrieve his property unjustly confiscated.

If said individual had EVER committed domestic violence, regardless of whether charges were filed, stuck, or the violence was even reported, he would not be my friend, and I would not even post on his behalf and certainly not help him in such a situation.

[POLICESTATE]

The lesson here folks is to learn to be pre-emptive. If things are going bad in your marriage, or may be going that way you might want to consider taking steps to protect assets which might be seized.

- Transferring your guns to a friend could be an option.
- Removing them from the state until such time it is safe to bring them back if you have the option.
- Taking them with you boating and having a tragic accident?

If I were to live in a repressive state and it aint registered it should be stored in such a way it's simply never found if someone goes looking around for stuff.

Likely the safest course of action is to simply do the FFL transfer to someone you *trust until such time as it is safe to transfer them back. Even with the cost and pain in the *** that entails.

*Trust = they will give you your stuff back, that they are in a good relationship with no risk that their (and your stuff) gets seized, they are not someone who might get their (and your stuff) seized for other reasons.

[bruss01]

Tell that buddy to save that $1200 for a divorce lawyer and/or moving expenses.

A woman who will frame you up to the cops is not one you want in your house or life, EVER.

That's assuming he was falsely accused. If he raised a hand to her then i can't feel sorry for him and he should be moving on anyway.

[BeAuMaN]

My buddy had numerous guns taken as a result of a no injury DV incident. The DA did not file any charges. He requested the county Sheriff's office to return the guns after the DA's decision. They told him that he had to get a LEGR letter from DOJ. He immediately petitioned the DOJ for the LEGR and it took them months to get it to him. He took the LEGR to the Sheriff's Office and they said he owed over $1,200 in storage fees for the guns.
Evidently they charge $1 a day for each gun, and some of the guns he had for over 20 years he didn't have a bill of sale for so they wouldn't release them until they were registered. He didn't have enough money to get them all back so he paid the fees to get only his .45 Kimber pistol back. Has anyone experience this situation? Could he have any chance of taking DOJ to small claims to compensate for his loss due to their negligence in getting him his LEGR certificate in a timely manner?

The fee mentioned by bagelbites has been something I've been looking into from a policy perspective, since this applies to GVROs as well. I think there's a lot of legal questions about doing effective confiscation through fees when there is no legal charge or due process. As you found out, even if no charge is filed, you still pay the fee. I'm no lawyer of course, but this would seem... unconstitutional, and others would be screaming if this were applied to a different right. For instance...

https://www.ci.emeryville.ca.us/DocumentCenter/View/19/Master-Fee-Schedule?bidId=

This is the 2018-2019 Master Fee schedule for the City of Emeryville. If you go to page 14, the Firearms Storage Fee is $502 (is that for a month? A year? Just a one-time?). And this varies by city and county, as "Master Fee Schedule" seems to be the key word to search. Arguably, I imagine they could charge you the Police Sworn Hourly Rate as well, depending on how they interpret 33880(a) or adopt their fee schedule, as they can charge for both the cost of the siezure (the police coming to your house) and the storage.

With that said, if your firearm was impounded and fee'd via 33880(a), it does require that "A city, county, or city and county, or a state agency may adopt a regulation, ordinance, or resolution imposing a charge..."

You could always look into if the county for which the sheriff has jurisdiction, properly adopted a regulation, ordinance, or resolution imposing such a charge, just on the off chance that they didn't, but of course that's a long shot. But yeah, as things currently are, it sucks.

Edit: If I might ask: what county is this? Assuming the sheriff only services one county.

[Terminator2]

It was in Santa Cruz County. And thanks to all for your thoughts and comments.

[BeAuMaN]

It was in Santa Cruz County. And thanks to all for your thoughts and comments.

Right, so it looks like they do have their ducks in a row:

http://sccounty04.co.santa-cruz.ca.us/UFS/ufsview.aspx

On the top left, there should be a drop down by the word "Department". Change that to "Sheriff-Coroner". Then find in page (or scroll) the term "Storage", you'll see:
"FIREARMS STORAGE FEE (PC 33880)
Storage of firearms taken by protective or restraining order, mental health hold, or domestic violence case"

They charge an administrative fee of $75 per firearm, and a storage fee of $1 per day per firearm stored. So it wasn't just $1 per day that contributed to the $1200, but $75 initially per firearm.

Edit: So, thoughts... again, not a lawyer:
1.) Inquire with the CA DoJ about the reason for the delay in processing the LEGR. Paperwork helps
2.) You might want to look into the the specifics of the DV. I'm not familiar with any of that kind of law, but how did the incident happen (I don't want to know about it, and nobody needs to know here), how were the firearms taken (I see looking at the Santa Cruz County Sheriff Policy Manual that it's taken if they're in plain view, look under Domestic Violence), and why were charges not filed by the DA. In other words, setting aside that CA DoJ took too damn long, who is at "fault" possibly? If there is another party at fault, you may be able to go after them to recover the $1200. However, legal fees would probably outweigh that, unless you pursue small claims maybe.
3.) Perhaps talk to the DA, assuming they're sort of friendly, and see if the city can waive the fees, given that the person being charged- well wait, the person being not-charged-but-having-their-firearms-confiscated was not at fault, and given that CA DoJ took too long to process the LEGR that lead to even more excessive fees. It's a lot to be charged fees for something for a service that the person never wanted in the first place and the triggering action was never even charged or followed up.

Just suggestions, but y'know, consult a real lawyer, etc. Only thing I'm doing is reading what's printed in black and white.

[Terminator2]

My buddy did mention the admin fee to me but I forgot to mention it in my initial post. Thanks for your research...much appreciated.