Hello, my name is Raymer Maguire, I’m a 30 year eminent domain practitioner, I limit my practice to representing property owners and business owners. And the question at hand is, what are the steps in a condemnation case?

The five basic steps in a condemnation case are:

One: appraisal of your property by both the government and by an appraiser that’s selected by your attorney;

Number two: the condemning authority provides you an offer, often based on their appraisal;

Number three: if you haven’t resolved the case on a pre-suit basis, then there is an eminent domain lawsuit and what we call an Order of Taking hearing, which transfers title of the property interests the government wants; and then

Step four: to resolve the compensation that’s due to you is often resolved by some form of Mediation; and then

Five: if out of say, 200 cases you haven’t resolved it, you might be the 1 out of 200 where there’s a Trial by jury for settling on what your compensation is going to be, paid to you by the government.