When the Indiana Department of Transportation seeks to acquire land for a road, it is required to make an acquisition offer to the owner. If the owner rejects the offer, under current law, INDOT is required to file a complaint to acquire the land by eminent domain within 6 years. If it fails to do so, INDOT is prohibited from initiating a renewed acquisition process for an additional 3 years.
HB 1076 shortens the time for filing a complaint to acquire the land from the 6 years to 3 years. Additionally, if INDOT does file such a complaint, courts are ordered to expedite the action and the court of appeals is instructed to adopt rules to expedite review of those trial court decisions.
That last part is pretty vague and, therefore, probably toothless if courts are inclined to ignore it. Aside from that, in light of the separation of powers, I wonder if the General Assembly is truly entitled to require courts to expedite particular things.
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