Sometimes it’s hard to believe, but Just Compensation, our monthly report on condemnation cases has been in continuous publication for some 54 years, and volume 55 is now in publication. It was started in 1957 by a Virginia gentleman named Henry Kaltenbach. He had been working in the federal Bureau of Public Roads, and in that connection he realized that the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 that gave us the interstate highway network, would inspire lots of condemnation actions for the new highways. So he sat down and wrote a book on eminent domain called JUST COMPENSATION.
But as cases started coming down in large numbers his book quickly grew outdated, so he wrote a second edition called JUST COMPENSDATION REVISED. Same thing happened again, so Mr. Kaltenbach, being the smart fellow that he was, decided that keeping track of changes in the law of eminent domain was a better business opportunity than the book, so he began publishing Just Compensation as a monthly supplement to the book. Long story short, the monthly publication quickly assumed a life of its own and superceded the book. It has evolved into a monthly reporting service on eminent domain and inverse condemnation, that reports published court decisions in these fields in abstract form. It also keeps track of new books on the subject, as well as articles in professional journals.
Readers tell us that if you work in eminent domain, whether as a lawyer, or an appraiser, or a right-of-way type, Just Compensation is a handy tool for keeping up and doing legal research.
We took over publication of Just Compensation in 1974, and the rest, as they say, is history.
For more information on Just Compensation, click on that phrase in the right margin of this page, get a free sample, and if you like what you read, subscribe.