Federal law gives the government three
procedural options: administrative forfeiture, civil
forfeiture, and criminal forfeiture. The first
applies only to uncontested cases and can, as the
name implies, be undertaken by a federal law
enforcement agency as an administrative or
"nonjudicial" matter, without the involvement of
either a prosecutor or a court. In contrast, both
civil forfeiture and criminal forfeiture are judicial
matters, requiring the commencement of a formal
action in a federal court, and concluding, if the
government is successful, with the entry of a court
order directing the transfer of title to the property
in question to the United States