America’s 1.18 million practicing attorneys could realize a new lode of prospecting opportunity with implementation of the proposed Grain Inspection, Packers & Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) rule on livestock marketing.

Joe Roybal 1

September 24, 2010

3 Min Read
GIPSA Requires Rationality, Not Emotion

America’s 1.18 million practicing attorneys could realize a new lode of prospecting opportunity with implementation of the proposed Grain Inspection, Packers & Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) rule on livestock marketing. Among the folks making that estimation is no less than the head of GIPSA itself, J. Dudley Butler.

It’s just a few sentences captured in an audio clip of remarks he made before the Organization for Competitive Markets about a year ago. But, Butler, the former plaintiff’s attorney, made the remarks not as a representative of his law firm but as head of GIPSA.

“When you have a term like ‘unfair, unreasonable or undue prejudice,’ that’s a plaintiff lawyer’s dream,” Butler says in the clip. “We can get in front of a jury with that. We won’t get thrown out on what we call summary judgment because that’s a jury question.”

A big area of concern with the proposed rule has been fears over the ease with which antitrust lawsuits could seemingly be brought against packers for breach of contract, cases that under current rules would be handled in state courts. Some fear that the threat of pervasive litigation will spell the end of value-based marketing and thrust the U.S. beef industry back to a commodity market.

Among those who see such potential for unbridled litigation is Allie Devine, vice president and general counsel for the Kansas Livestock Association.

“This is a pervasive invasion of government into private contractual relations in a way that we have not seen in this industry or in other sectors of the economy,” she says.

“In this proposed regulation, there is a lessening of the standards of what it takes to make a case, either by the government or by civil suits. The lessening of the standards is what opens the doors to trial lawyers,” Devine says.

It doesn’t take much contemplation to foresee the potential – beyond well-meaning producers – for more of the unbridled litigation that has become such a popular tool of anti-meat groups.

Consider that the Humane Society of the U.S., for instance, with its annual budget of $130 million/year maintains a staff of a dozen lawyers, as well as more than 1,000 pro bono attorneys. Their self-professed job is to conduct “precedent-setting legal campaigns” on behalf of animals in state and federal courts and serve as the primary line of defense against legal attacks on legislative measures they don’t agree with.

Another example is offered by livestock producers fighting the ravages of federal wolf reintroduction (see “Cattlemen Protest Wolf Predation In The West” – beefmagazine.com/cattlemen-protest-wolf/ and “Minnesotans Sue Federal Government Over Wolves” – beefmagazine.com/minnesotans-sue-gov-wolves/). The success of activists in utilizing legal proceedings has managed to drag out delisting of the wolf for years despite the fact that all requirements were met years ago.

But the potential reach of the law goes much further than just livestock production, Devine says.

“This rule shifts agriculture over into a new realm of regulatory framework that isn’t matched in any other industry. If this becomes the precedent for antitrust law, we have some serious concerns about how other industries in the U.S. will function,” she says.

For a video interview with Allie Devine and other attendees of the recent USDA/Department of Justice workshop on livestock competition issues held in Fort Collins, CO, go to: beefmagazine.com/beeftv/attendee-comments/.

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