With my work as the Chair of the ABA General Practice, Solo & Small Firm Division’s Agriculture Law Committee, I will be moderating a local food law CLE on May 10, 2012 from 2-4pm. The purpose of this CLE webinar is to give the practitioner the tools necessary to properly counsel various segments of the local food movement. You do …
Enjoyed Speaking to a College Equine Class Today via Skype
I had a great time this morning presenting an overview of New York equine law to Prof. Sheila Marshman’s Equine Law at Morrisville State College via Skype. I gave an overview of our legal system and explained how laws were made. I also gave an overview of livestock animal cruelty law, tort law (including nuisance, horseback rider’s release of liability, …
ABA Agriculture Law Subcommittees
As I noted in this previous post, I am the new Chair of the American Bar Association (“ABA”), General Practice, Solo and Small Firm’s Division, Agriculture Law Committee. You can join the Committee and the Discussion List here. I have restructured the subcommittees as follows: 1. Ag ADR: mediation, arbitration 2. Ag Estate/Succession Planning, Family Law, and Taxation: estate planning,succession …
Liability in Highway Accidents Involving Livestock
There was an interesting article on page 5 of the May 16, 2011 edition of County Folks by Jay Girvin, Esq. of Girvin & Ferlazzo, P.C. about whether a livestock owners can be held liable if their animal wanders off their farm and causes a highway accident. You can review the full article online here. Mr. Girvin accurately noted that …
Ag Torts 101: Premise Liability
Sorry that it’s been a while since my last Ag Torts 101 blog. As a reminder, in this blog, I stated that a “tort” is a civil wrongdoing other than breach of contract. Among the different types of torts, negligence is the most common tort among farms, ranches, and agribusinesses. In this blog, I stated that the four common law …
Ag Torts 101: Duty and Standard of Care
As noted in this previous blog, the common law elements of negligence are: 1) duty, 2) breach, 3) causation, and 4) damages. The most important element is duty. So when does one owe a legal duty to another? If there is a duty then what standard of care applies? The general rule is that a person or business owes a …