Law, College of
Nebraska Law Bulletin (Selected Issues)
Date of this Version
7-1-2020
Document Type
Article
Citation
Nebraska Law Bulletin (July 1, 2020)
Abstract
In the 2019 legislative session, the Nebraska Legislature considered LB 227. Driven in part by a concern for large verdicts awarded in cases in North Carolina and a need to expand producer protections to accommodate agricultural growth, it adopted modest changes to the statutory nuisance protection for agricultural producers. That statutory protection is often referred to as a “right-to-farm law.”
Nebraska first started wrestling with the issue of protecting producers from nuisance suits in 1977, with significant amendments in 1980. In 1982, Nebraska adopted new statutes that largely displaced those earlier efforts. Those 1982 statutes, Neb. Rev. Stat. sections 2-4401 through 4404 were the subject of LB 227. This article provides a brief background on Nebraska’s right-to-farm law. It then uses that background to show the significance of the proposed changes the legislature considered in 2019. This article then offers some commentary on the course of the bill and the resulting legislation. In the end, while there were very significant changes on the drawing board during the course of debate, the legislature settled on a more moderate form of producer protection—a two-year statute of limitations—that could prove harmful to the unwary.
Comments
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