In the winter of 2025, Alan Ackerman, Hon. Matthew Ackerman, and Robert Kuhn taught a class on eminent domain and property rights at the Michigan State University College of Law….
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One of the highlights of my legal career was representing property owners in County of Wayne v. Hathcock, a landmark Michigan Supreme Court case that overturned the controversial Poletown Neighborhood…
In an April blog, I wrote that The Practical Real Estate Lawyer was publishing my article, The Pitfalls of Objectively Measured Just Compensation: When Market Value Isn’t Enough, in its September 2024 issue. …
As referenced in an earlier blog, Alan and Mathew co-authored an article in The Practical Real Estate Lawyer‘s May 2024 issue. The article is titled “Valuation of Partial Takings.” In…
* The following blog is an adaptation of the presentation Alan Ackerman and Matthew Ackerman gave on “The Fundamentals of Easement Valuation” at the American Law Institute’s Eminent Domain &…
In my last blog, I wrote about the shortcomings of compensating displaced property owners based on the ‘objective’ standard of the market value of their property. That standard ignores the…
Alan and Matthew recently co-authored an article in the September 2022 issue of ALI CLE’s The Practical Real Estate Lawyer. In the article, they describe the historical context of the…
At a time when the State of Michigan is planning or moving forward on several high-profile construction or public works projects, the issue of eminent domain is once again in…
The retention of an expert requires certain basic tenets, and if any are broken it is likely that the viability of a condemnation just compensation claim will be destroyed. Condemnation…
What part of the Constitution limits the power of eminent domain? The obvious answer is the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment, which states “nor shall private property be taken…