I hope that this blog will be informative to both attorneys who do not specialize in the area of condemnation and lay people. It will address legal concepts that arise in condemnation cases, issues that impact condemnation law in the state of Michigan and events that take place in my law practice representing property owners being subjected to eminent domain cases.
I find condemnation law to be fun and fascinating. I specialize in a wide variety of real estate and contract lawsuits, however, eminent domain is my first love.
I first encountered eminent domain issues as a law clerk in the Oakland County Circuit Court prior to passing the bar exam. From there, I joined Ackerman & Ackerman, P.C., where I did nothing but represent property owners in condemnation cases. Following my time with Ackerman & Ackerman, I joined Kupelian Ormond & Magy, P.C., a small law firm with active real estate and commercial litigation practices. I continued my practice with KOM handling and trying a wide variety of condemnation cases for owners involving different types of projects and different classes of properties throughout the state of Michigan. In addition, I also represented municipalities where I defended various types of regulatory or physical inverse condemnation actions. In June, 2012, my partners and I at KOM decided to join Clark Hill, PLC, a large firm with offices in Detroit, Birmingham, Grand Rapids, Lansing, as well as other locations throughout the United States. With Clark Hill, I have continued to represent a wide variety of property owners defending condemnation actions.
Eminent domain is not something that attorneys typically learn in law school. General eminent domain principles may be addressed in constitutional or real property law classes, however, I quickly learned that those “black-letter” principles provide little practical guidance to an attorney handling an eminent domain matter. Eminent domain is recognized to be a highly technical area of the law, with special statutory procedures, critical deadlines, and decades of legal precedents that must be understood and applied. An eminent domain attorney also needs to be an expert in appraisal theory. It is not an area that can be learned by reviewing a treatise and it is not advisable that attorneys dabble in the practice area. So far, I have spent eighteen years as an eminent domain specialist and I hope to share my insights and expertise through this blog.
If you have any questions about condemnation and eminent domain issues, please do not hesitate to contact me.