Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: Homestead Protection from Federal Restitution

I am unsure of the answer -- however, after some research I'm inclined to believe the California homestead exemptions would apply to enforcement of a Federal criminal restitution order.

See, for example, United States v. Timilty (1st Cir., 1998) 148 F.3d 1 at page 4, holding that enforcement of judgment imposing a criminal fine in favor of the United States was controlled by, among other law, Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 69(a), which mandates collection and enforcement procedures that are attuned to state law. Also see 28 USC 3014 re exempt property in Federal debt collection procedures, allowing a debtor to exempt property which would be exempt under the law of the state in which the debtor resides. Section 3014 is NOT controlling because it does not apply to criminal restitution orders but only to judgments, etc. relating to debts (see Section 3001). Nevertheless, the tone of Federal law is to follow state law on enforcement of judgments.

The matter may be unresolved in the 9th Circuit. I could find no case directly on point. Further, I haven't researched the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, because I don't have it -- it may contain the answer.