Brian E. Frosh | marylandattorneygeneral.gov
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (Legal Newsline) - A proposal that would have allowed the Maryland attorney general to hire contingency fee lawyers to sue oil companies on climate change claims was so poorly written and open-ended it sparked concerns among farmers that they could get dragged into protracted litigation.
House Bill 1078 failed to pass out of committee during the legislative session that ended this week, but Maryland Farm Bureau s Colby Ferguson said he was concerned the proposal as written would impact farmers statewide.
“Our worry is a farmer could be dragged into a lawsuit for having a diesel tank on their farm and that this bill would allow them to cast a wider net to consume more people and more businesses into litigation with the plan of settling out of court,” said Ferguson, director of government relations with the Bureau.