Practical Pointers for Land Trusts When Facing a Lawsuit or Other Legal Challenge of Any Size

With protected land in the millions of acres and more land under easement transferring to successor landowners, violations will occur and land trusts must address all of them. Even the best-prepared land trust will eventually experience a major dispute that requires its personnel to exercise anger management and sound negotiation skills.

The purpose of this toolbox is to help land trust board members, staff and volunteers to successfully manage challenges, disputes and litigation. Land trust personnel who lack formal legal training but who are looking for more information about managing risk and dealing with legal challenges in land conservation should be able to use it easily. The toolbox includes definitions of formal legal terminology so that the lessons are accessible to the reader without legal training.

The toolbox also includes examples of conservation defense lawsuits. The examples are summarized for clarity and so that an educated layperson will be able to understand them. Where possible, each example has a citation for those who wish to refer to the original legal text.