Arizona Daily Star Interviews Carl Sammartino Regarding Eminent Domain Success for Property Owners

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The Arizona Daily Star interviewed me recently regarding my successful representation of multiple property owners whose property the City of Tucson condemned using eminent domain for the Downtown Links project:

“‘Whenever there is a large dispute, or a large number of disputes ... it indicates that there was some major disagreement between the government agency and the private property owner regarding the value of the property taken,’ said Carl Sammartino, an attorney who represented several of the affected owners.

Though they were on opposite sides of those disputes, Rossi and Sammartino agreed on the principal cause for the disagreements: The boom in downtown development, which led many owners to believe that their properties were worth more than the city was offering. A quick review of the offer and ultimate settlement figures shows that owners ended up with about 60 percent more than what was originally on the table, according to court documents.”
— Woodhouse, Murphy. (2017, September 18). Road Runner: Decades in the making, downtown bypass in sight. Arizona Daily Star, pp. A2, A5.

Please refer to my page of reviews on AVVO to see how my clients felt about the results I obtained for them as their eminent domain lawyer. You can also find the original Arizona Daily Star article here on the Star's website or permanently cached here. 

City of Tucson - 43rd Best-Run City in the Nation?

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Wallethub has published a study identifying the best-run cities in America, and the City of Tucson ranks 43rd by one of their metrics. That ranking includes a combined measure of "overall city services" and "total budget per capita." Tucson is ranked 99th out of 150 cites in the former and 29th out of 150 cities in the latter, which creates the composite score of 43rd best-run city out of 150 largish cities studied. 

It should be noted, however, that Tucson falls almost into the bottom third (99th our of 150) of ranked cities using Wallethub's detailed breakdown by city, which accounts for financial stability (88th), education (114th), health (82nd), safety (109th), the economy (117th), and infrastructure and pollution (47th).

Looking at Tucson's performance in the subcategories, it seems like this city is doing well at spending a large amount of money per capita, improving infrastructure, and addressing pollution. Tucson is not doing as well at being financially stable, providing health care, safety, and education, or addressing the overall economy. 

This is an interesting study that provides a detailed look at the City of Tucson's overall performance relative to other cities in the United States. It definitely highlights areas the city could improve with more focus and leadership.  

Carl Sammartino - Certified Specialist in Real Estate Law

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This May, the Board of Legal Specialization of the State Bar of Arizona certified me as a specialist in real estate law. Certification requires admission to practice for at least seven years, substantial legal practice in the area of real estate for a period of five years, the Board's recommendation after application and references, and passing an examination, which I took and passed in April. I am proud to have met these rigorous standards. 

Certified.

Certified.

The State Bar of Arizona currently lists 72 board-certified-real-estate-law specialists in the State of Arizona, and only 15 of those have primary offices in Pima County. If you are looking for help resolving a real estate related legal issue, I highly recommend you seek the advice of one of those specialists. The specialist certification is the only designation the State Bar of Arizona grants to certify a particular lawyer practices mainly within one area of the law. 

 

March-April 2015 Updates - Staying Up to Date as an Eminent Domain Lawyer

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Finding time to accumulate 15 hours of continuing legal education credit is sometimes harder than it sounds. Many CLE courses are two or three hours only or held in inconvenient locations. Add in the basic aridity common to all work-related seminars, and it is no wonder most lawyers are not overenthusiastic regarding this yearly requirement. 

Fortunately, this need not be so for condemnation lawyers. We have been fortunate to have dedicated eminent domain lawyers throughout the state who are willing to put on a six-and-a-half hour conference packed with focused eminent-domain-specific content. This is known as the Condemnation Summit, held twice a year.

I will be attending the Condemnation Summit on May 15th to make sure I stay on top of the developing trends in eminent domain law. Since it is a conference for right-of-way professionals and appraisers as well as attorneys, it is always a great place to gain a perspective on how all aspects of government takings work.