Environmental Problems, Their Causes, and Sustainability 1

noise to certain levels or to eliminate it during certainperiods, such as at night.Another principle used in common law cases isnegligence in which a party causes damage by knowinglyacting in an unlawful or unreasonable manner.For example, a company may be found negligent if itfails to handle hazardous waste in a way required bya statutory law. A court may also find a companynegligent if it fails to do something a reasonable personwould do, such as testing waste for certain harmfulchemicals before dumping it into a sewer, landfill,or river. Generally, negligence is harder to prove thannuisance.What Factors Hinder the Effectivenessof Environmental Lawsuits in the UnitedStates? Mostly Money and TimeEnvironmental lawsuits are expensive and difficultto win.Several factors limit the effectiveness of environmentallawsuits. First, any person bringing the suit must establishthat she or he has the legal right or legal standingto do so in a particular court. To have such a right,plaintiffs must show that they have personally sufferedhealth or financial losses from some alleged environmentalactivity.Second, bringing any lawsuit is expensive—toomuch so for most individuals. Large organizations, onthe other hand, can often afford to defend themselvesin court for months or years.Third, public interest law firms cannot recover attorneys’fees unless Congress has specifically authorizedit in the laws that those firms are seeking to haveenforced. By contrast, corporations can reduce theirtaxes by deducting their legal expenses—in effect havingthe public pay for part of their legal fees. In otherwords, the legal playing field is uneven and in financialterms is stacked against individuals and groups of privatecitizens filing environmental lawsuits.Fourth, to stop a nuisance or to collect damagesfrom a nuisance or an act of negligence, plaintiffsmust establish they have been harmed in some significantway and that the defendant caused the harm. Doingthis can be difficult and costly. Suppose a company(the defendant) is charged with causing cancerin individuals by polluting a river. If hundreds ofother industries and cities dump waste into that river,establishing that the defendant is the culprit is verydifficult and requires expensive investigation, scientificresearch, and expert testimony. In addition, it ishard to establish that a particular chemical caused theplaintiffs’ cancers.Fifth, most states have statues of limitations, lawsthat limit how long a plaintiff can take to sue after aparticular event occurs. These statutes often make itessentially impossible for victims of cancer, whichmay take 10–20 years to develop, to file or win a negligencesuit.Sixth, the court, or series of courts if the case is appealed,may take years to reach a decision. During thattime a defendant may continue the allegedly damagingaction unless the court issues a temporary injunctionagainst it until the case is decided.Finally, some corporations, developers, and governmentagencies file strategic lawsuits against publicparticipation (SLAPPs) against citizens who publiclycriticize a business for some activity such as pollutingor a government agency for not performing its legalobligation to protect the public. SLAPPs range from$100,000 to $100 million but average $9 million persuit. For example, in Texas when a woman publiclycalled a nearby landfill a dump the landfill ownerssued her husband for $5 million for failing to “controlhis wife.” Judges who recognize them for what theyare throw out about 90% of the SLAPPs that go tocourt. But individuals and groups hit with SLAPPsmust hire lawyers, and typically spend 1–3 years defendingthemselves.Most SLAPPs are not meant to be won, but are intendedto intimidate individuals and activist groups—to keep them from exercising their democratic rights tocriticize or oppose projects they believe are environmentallyharmful. Once fear and rising defense costsshake the victim of a SLAPP, the defendant often dropsthe suit. Sometimes a company or government agencyoffers to drop the lawsuit if the defendants agree tostop their protest and never discuss the case or opposethe plaintiff again.Some citizen activists have fought back withcounter suits and have been awarded damages. For example,a Missouri woman who was sued for criticizinga medical waste incinerator won an $86.5 million judgmentagainst the incinerator’s owner.Even after paying such awards, corporations anddevelopers generally save money by filing such suits.Unlike the people they are suing, they can count legaland liability insurance costs as business expenses andwrite them off on their taxes. In other words, they getall taxpayers to pay much of the cost of lawsuitsagainst a few taxpayers who are exercising their rightsas citizens.Because of the numerous difficulties just discussed,an increasing number of environmental lawsuitsare being settled out of court. Some are settledprivately and others by mediation, in which a neutralparty tries to resolve the dispute in a way that is acceptableto both parties. Mediation is much less costlyand time consuming and may provide a more satisfactoryresolution of a dispute than going to court. But asettlement drawn up by mediation is not legally bindingunless the terms of the agreement make it so. Thusmonths of mediation can result in an agreement thatpolluters may ignore.http://biology.brookscole.com/miller14617