The taking of property has spawned a whole area of legal practice called Eminent Domaine
- This area of legal practice makes a living off of taking 1/3 of the difference between what the city will offer you and what the law firm will negotiate with the city
- In order for this legal practice to survive requires the city to systematically make such low offers that highly paid lawyers are willing to forgo upfront fees in order to get a large slice of the value of your property
- The law firm will gather information from you, present it to the city and negotiate on your behalf to get you the larger settlement
- These negotiations never go to court. Taking your case to court would be far too expensive for a law firm so they settle with the city for an amount that may not be the full value of your loss – but your attorney gets 1/3 of the difference – even if they settle for less than the actual amount of damage
You lose a large percent of the value of your property to this “legal” practice
- This is for property that you invested in, took care of for years, paid insurance and property taxes, and tried to build your home, business, and congregation
- Because municipalities have the power to condemn you property they can routinely offer an amount so low attorneys can make a living without even getting an upfront fee. They bet their livelihood on you being treated unfairly.
Here is an example of how it works:
- Let’s say the value of the property they take from you is $20k and the damage to the remainder of your property is $80k for a total of $100k of loss/property damage
- The city offers you $20k
- ”Your” lawyer settles with the city for $80k
- The lawyer got you $60k more than the city offered
- The lawyer takes 1/3 of the amount over the amount the city offered which in this case is also $20k
- In the end you get $20k that the city offered you plus you get $40k the lawyer got for you or to total of $60k
- OK – $60k is a lot better than $20k – which is how this area of practice makes lawyer salaries
- BUT YOU LOST $40k OF THE VALUE OF YOUR PROPERTY
- The lawyer settled for an amount less than your property is damaged by in order to stay out of court and you paid the lawyer 1/3 of the amount recovered
Its safe to say this is Highway Robbery