Fixel, Maguire & Willis

Eminent Domain – Condemnation Attorneys

Decades of experience serving Florida's property owners and businesses

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FIRM’S ROLE AND OBJECTIVES:

Fixel, Maguire & Willis’s role, together with that of the experts it works with, simply stated is: Put each client whose property has been targeted for acquisition or who is confronted with condemnation in a position to make the best fully informed decisions.  The nature of these decisions often relates to determining appropriate responses to any offers that have been, or ultimately will be, made by the condemning authority. The final decision will be the client’s, with the firm’s function being to use its decades of extensive eminent domain experience to advise and recommend.

Fixel, Maguire & Willis’s overall objective is to obtain the most desirable result under the particular facts and circumstances presented during the eminent domain process. That may mean preventing the condemning authority from taking the property. If that is not desired by Fixel, Maguire & Willis's client or if preventing the taking is not possible, it means obtaining for the property or business owner the compensation the client is entitled to by law. This compensation includes being paid fairly for the value of the property taken and for damages to any remainder property. Compensation may also include, where applicable, business damages incurred when a business is adversely affected.

Without an experienced eminent domain team working on behalf of the property owner, most negative impacts to remaining property will not be revealed until the public project is built and completed. These adverse impacts can be very serious and are usually permanent.  Just a few examples of these negative impacts include unfavorable drainage consequences, driveway connection problems, and detrimental grade changes.

Generally, the condemning authority’s focus is on designing its project to serve its purpose, not on identifying, disclosing, and fully taking into account these types of significant negative consequences to remaining property and businesses.  If these negative impacts to remaining property are not taken into account before a settlement is concluded with the condemning authority, it is very unlikely damages caused by these impacts will ever be acknowledged or paid for by the condemning authority.

Fully taking into account negative impacts to remaining property and businesses is where Fixel, Maguire & Willis, together with the experienced eminent domain consultants it works with, can especially assist the property owner or business tenant. Some of these consultants include condemnation appraisers, engineers, land planners, surveyors, business damage accountants, machinery and equipment valuation experts, and general contractors.

In appropriate cases, non-monetary solutions, such as construction plan changes to preserve suitable access, realign roadways, restore adequate drainage facilities and other such items, are secured in lieu of money damages. Other times the solution is securing those compensation elements to which the client is entitled.  

One final and very important objective of Fixel, Maguire & Willis is to secure for its clients a written enforceable right to claim additional damages in the event the condemning authority builds something different than it has represented it plans to build and this change causes unanticipated negative impacts to clients’ remaining property.

Fixel, Maguire & Willis generally accepts the statutorily formulated fees Florida condemning authorities must pay as payment for the services Fixel, Maguire & Willis provides its property owner clients for pursuing and securing property claims during the eminent domain process.  However, there are three particular exceptional circumstances.  This is clearly set forth in Fixel, Maguire & Willis's Responsibility for Fees section of this web page and in the Fixel, Maguire & Willis Property Owner Retainer Agreement which will be made available to you upon request.

For other frequently sought information about Fixel, Maguire & Willis, its practice, its attorneys, and eminent domain see Common Prospective Client Questions and Answers.

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