Eminent Domain Inverse Condemnation
When private property is needed by government for the construction of roads, schools, or for other public purposes, Shutts & Bowen’s Eminent Domain Practice Group has the experience and resources to deal with big government and to level the playing field.
The Eminent Domain Practice Group represents property and business owners whose property or business is impacted by a “taking” under the government’s ominous power of eminent domain. The clients of this Practice group range from national oil companies, drug stores, and restaurants to owners of single family homes and everything in between including owners and developers of shopping centers, warehouses, condominiums, apartments, office buildings, etc. Owners of special purpose properties, such as broadcast facilities, churches, fast food restaurants and similar “single purpose” properties regularly consult with the attorneys in this Practice Group, which is based in Fort Lauderdale but operates state-wide, well in advance of the governmental “taking” of their properties so that their rights are properly protected.
In addition, the attorneys of the Eminent Domain Practice Group have substantial experience in recognizing when governmental over-regulation of property becomes so restrictive as to amount, in law, to a “taking”, even when property is not physically appropriated and government does not formally announce its intention to condemn. In such circumstances inverse condemnation, or a suit against the government, is filed in order to seek a declaration from a circuit court that the governmental regulations are so confiscatory that they are, in fact, a “taking” of property or of property rights, requiring the payment of compensation to its owner.
Familiar with and sensitive to the planning and production concerns of condemning authorities, the lawyers of the Eminent Domain Practice Group know the complex and challenging issues that arise when land must be acquired for a public purpose and have the tools and expertise needed to resolve these issues and secure payment to its clients of constitutionally mandated full compensation.
