Maine LobstermEn’s Association Amicus Brief & Business Support

The experienced regulatory affairs lawyers from Schaerr Jaffe LLP have extensive experience supporting businesses that governmental regulations have negatively impacted. Not only have we advocated for the best interests of businesses through an attorney-client relationship, but we also regularly invest our time into supporting businesses by filing what is known as an amicus brief, an “amicus curiae.” This means basically “friend of the court,” and it is a legal brief filed to support the parties’ position in a dispute and to provide the court with relevant data and information to help guide its decision. 

Maine Regulations Harmed the Business Owners We Filed on Behalf Of 

At Schaerr | Jaffe, we work tirelessly to support the capacity of our clients to work and profit in their industries, as we are likewise business owners and understand the importance of having the freedom needed to operate effectively within the confines of the law. We filed this particular amicus brief to support the Maine State Chamber of Commerce (MSCC) in their opposition to National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) regulations that, while meant to protect endangered whales, had led to a detrimental impact on Maine’s lobster industry. 

We supported the reversal of the NMFS’s regulations to enable Maine lobster businesses to continue operating as they had before, with the same respect for the protected species. It is important to ensure that businesses take “reasonable and prudent measures” to limit the accidental takings of members of an endangered species. It is also important that regulatory agencies measure whether or not their regulations are, in fact, “reasonable and prudent” for the businesses that they will impact, and in this instance, we believe that they are not. 

Burdensome Restrictions Can Exceed Necessities and Damage Businesses 

The impact can be two-pronged when the government issues regulatory restrictions on any industry, whether lobsters or otherwise. On one side, there is the intended benefit of the regulation, which in this instance was the sustainability of the lobster population to, in turn, support the industry. On the other side, the real-world impact of the regulation, which in this instance was to damage the businesses operating in the very industry the regulation was meant to protect. 

If you are a business owner and your capacity to operate and profit has been negatively impacted by governmental regulation, you may be entitled to a claim to recover the financial damages associated with the restrictions. The best way to determine if you have a case is by speaking with an experienced governmental and regulatory affairs attorney.