Hangley Aronchick Segal Pudlin & Schiller environmental shareholder Steve Miano provides commentary to NJ Spotlight News on New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration’s aggressive approach to environmental litigation.
With 20 lawsuits claiming compensation from corporations for damage to natural resources and another 52 complaints seeking the cleanup of sites that have polluted overburdened communities, Steve says that New Jersey is leading the Northeast in filing these types of cases.
Steve explains that New Jersey is well-positioned to file many natural resources damage (NRD) cases due to the high number of old factories across the state, as well as the number of waterways. He believes the state can win many of these NRD cases because the law is clear and damage to natural resources is relatively easy to prove. There are a lot of resources, such as rivers and habitats, that have permanent damage or have sustained damage for a long time.
Even though it is relatively easy to prove NRD, Steve notes that determining the exact damage and appropriate reparation is the hard part, which is why these types of cases take a long time.
Read more about Steve’s thoughts on New Jersey’s environmental litigation efforts.
