Articles

Tort Reform -- Victories in California Supreme Court We received a couple of nice decisions this week from the California Supreme Court.  First, there was this decision in Verdugo v. Target, the case where the widow of a  heart-attack victim, who died while shopping at Target, alleged that Target had a duty to provide an automated external de ...

Today, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service finally announced it is downlisting the wood stork from endangered to threatened status. This comes after years of arm-twisting by PLF and its client, the Florida Homebuilders Association, to get the Fish and Wildlife Service to abide by its statutory duty to review species on the endangered and threatened ...

Last week, we sent the Fish and Wildlife Service another notice of intent to file suit.  This time, the matter involves the protected status of the wood stork, a bird that is increasingly common in South Florida. In 2007, PLF won a lawsuit representing the Florida Home Builders Association, which required the FWS to do long overdue, legally mandat ...

NPR's All Things Considered interviewed PLF's Alan DeSerio about the wood stork's imminent change from "endangered" to "threatened" status.  As I wrote last month, the proposed status change comes after years of PLF pressuring the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to follow its own rules: If an animal is no longer endangered, the government should al ...

Friday, the Palm Beach Post ran an op-ed by Alan DeSerio, managing attorney for PLF's Atlantic Center in Florida. DeSerio responds to an op-ed run by the paper, which portrayed an imaginary version of PLF's involvement in the FWS's proposed downlisting of the wood stork from "endangered" to "threatened." In the article, What saved the wood storks? ...

Yesterday, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) announced its intent to downlist the wood stork from endangered to threatened. This comes after years of arm-twisting by PLF and its client, the Florida Homebuilders Association (FHA), to get the Service to abide by its statutory duty to review species on the endangered and threatened lists, t ...

Author: Reed Hopper Although U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists have recommended reclassifying the wood stork from endangered to threatened because the stork's range and population have doubled in recent years, activists rage over the Florida Home Builders' request that the Service take action on its own recommendation. Rather than&# ...

Author: Reed Hopper Builder magazine reports: Last week's announcement by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service—that it would consider reclassifying the wood stork, a wading bird often found in South Florida's Everglades, as "threatened" from its current "endangered" status—is the culmination of nearly five years of wrangling a ...

Author:  Reed Hopper Under the ESA, the Service is required to review the status of listed species every five years to determine if less or more protections are required.  Unfortunately, this is a task the Service rarely performs, except under duress.  Pacific Legal Foundation has had to compel these 5-year status reviews for lite ...