Eminent Domain

Pursuant to the United States and Montana Constitutions, there are certain circumstances in which the government can take private property for a public purpose, so long as the government pays just compensation for the property taken or damaged. Lund Law represents landowners against the government to ensure the property owner’s private property rights are not trampled on.

When Hertha attended the United States Supreme Court case of Lucas v. South Carolina as a journalist in 1992 she decided to go to law school to become an advocate for property owners. After law school she clerked for then Chief Judge Loren Smith at the United States Court of Federal Claims where most takings cases against the United States are decided. Hertha has spent hundreds of hours researching and writing about the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution and its protections for private property rights. She has litigated numerous cases and has briefed issues in amicus curiae briefs at the United States Supreme Court. Currently, Lund Law provides legal representation for many landowners who have been contacted by a government agency wanting to take their land for a public purpose.

Click here to learn more about Montana’s eminent domain laws.

Lund Law also represents landowners in Inverse Condemnation and Regulatory Takings lawsuits, when the government takes private property without initiating formal eminent domain proceedings. Hertha said takings is the only area of law in which she is a bit of a nerd, because of the extensive time she has spent studying property law.