Bucks County cut corners to file climate change lawsuit, oil industry says

• What happened: The defendants in a Pennsylvania county’s climate nuisance lawsuit are pushing back, claiming the litigation is illegitimate because it was not approved in a public meeting, as required by state law.

• **Remind me:**Bucks County’s lawsuit is part of a larger trend of cookie cutter climate nuisance suits seeking to hold energy producers liable for damages related to climate change.

  •  Over 35 municipalities and several states across the country have filed similar lawsuits, which are headed up by a handful of boutique law firms working on a contingency fee.

• What else? The oil companies’ legal argument echoes a broader challenge to these lawsuits: that state law cannot govern global climate change issues, which should be addressed through federal law or regulations.

• TLR Thoughts: While the procedural misstep of bypassing approval protocols may undermine this lawsuit’s legitimacy, it also highlights casts doubt on attempts by contingency fee attorneys to use cookie-cutter nuisance pleadings to extract damages from the companies behind legal products that we rely on every day.

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