Below you will find articles from our legal journals on a variety of pressing legal topics.
When real property subject to condemnation is within an area of urban renewal2 or is underutilized, understanding the potential for a highest and best use that differs from a property’s current use, as of the date of condemnation, is critical. This...
The administrative process by which tribal nations obtain trust status for land to conduct off-reservation gaming or other activities has been criticized by some as cumbersome, lengthy, and overly burdensome.1 With recently implemented amendments...
This article will focus on how lawyers and appraisers can work together to tackle difficult appraisal problems that don’t lend themselves easily to a simple comparable sales approach or where such an approach requires larger adjustments than are...
It is axiomatic that “you can’t get the value right if you get the highest and best use wrong.”1 There may be no more fundamental concept in the valuation of property under the Fifth Amendment’s just compensation clause than that fair market value...
There are people who believe that zombies will take over the world one day. Today, however, digital information rules the world. In the United States and many other industrialized nations, almost all non-verbal communications (as well as notes and...
“This land is your land, this land is my land.This land was made for you and me.”—Woody Guthrie INTRODUCTION The iconic Woody Guthrie Song “This Land Is Your Land” is a song celebrating the great diversity of landscapes which define the geography...
We all know that ground leases, in which the tenant (Tenant or Ground Lessee) leases land for a very long term, present a special kind of challenge. The Tenant controls the improvements on the property during the lease term, but at the end of the...
In any joint venture formed to acquire real estate, one point that should be addressed early in the process is whether, the extent to which, and how the parties intend to share costs incurred by each party individually in furtherance of the venture...
The Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA)1 imposes strict liability for environmental cleanup costs on several categories of parties, including current owners and operators that had no hand in contaminating...