Today I want to answer the question, “I have a security interest in property that somebody is using, or I loaned somebody some property and they haven’t given it back to me. How do I get possession of that property from the person who’s wrongfully withholding it?”

Well, the answer to that question is there’s a procedure in the law called replevin, and replevin is a fairly short procedure in most states because these are things where stuff disappears, and the people that want to get their stuff back or get their collateral back so they can sell it, tends to have a problem getting hold of that, so they don’t want them to hang around too long in the court process. It’s a fairly quick procedure that allows you to go into Maryland District Court and obtain an order or judgment giving you possession of your stuff.

Once you have that order or judgment, then you send the sheriff out to identify it and to grab it and to bring it back into someplace for storage or safekeeping so that you can then sell it to pay down your debt, or if it’s yours and the other person was holding it, simply enjoy whatever use and possession that you want once you have it back in your possession.