Research Help please :) Equine law!

[LegalEq]

What would you say are the top three questions you have/ come across in the horse world for legal stuff? Like writing contracts, or disputes, or questions you’d like to ask a lawyer (if they weren’t so expensive! )

Or just what you’ve always been curious about with horse business and laws (how to set up my boarding barn the right way? how to buy a horse internationally? will I be sued if my friend falls off my horse? etc.)

Thanks!! (I write a blog about it so I’m curious what YOU guys think)

[PhoenixFarm]

I used an equine lawyer to read over my contracts and releases, and file a stablemen’s lien when someone abandoned 2 horses here.

[Lord_Helpus]

I am a retired attorney but I still get requests to look over/write a sales contract.

The on line forms are only good if everything goes so smoothly that you don’t need a contract in the first place.

I also still get asked about liability, especially as part of farm insurance.

[LookmaNohands]

Locally, it is deciphering abuse and neglect laws and how to change them!

[csaper58]

“Do I really have to pay for 30 days, can’t I just leave”?

[Bluey]

Three questions I hear are liability - more on liability - some more yet on liability.

How to limit liability, which forms, what should be in those, who should sign them, when to present them, how often should they be signed, every time, once a year, where to keep them so they are readily available, where to file them.
Are they worth the trouble, do they really help?

That is about the most important legal question people ask here.

[NJRider]

If you read the opinion of the online folks, when you buy a misrepresented horse, it is on YOU…“Buyer Beware”. Please make sure buyers know about the consumer fraud protection laws, that vary by state that protect victims of horse sale fraud.

[ReSomething]

I seem to see a lot of threads on boarding barns and contracts.

[vxf111]

“Right of first refusal” is a concept that could use additional coverage. As are stableman’s liens.

[LegalEq]

Oh interesting! It can be a complicated topic: right of first offer vs right of first refusal. I litigated a case over a dispute of right of first refusal (the original owner had an emotional attachment to the horse, but couldn’t afford to keep it. The new owner apparently made an effort to contact the original owner when she wanted to sell it, but the original owner had disappeared…until she filed a lawsuit 4 years later!). Thanks for the suggestion

[LegalEq]

Thanks for help!

Thanks everyone- I appreciate it! I’ll draft up some blog (and maybe video) posts on these topics and let you know…and I’ll keep searching around the forums for the legal questions people are asking.

[roamingnome]

[QUOTE=LegalEq;8381214]
Oh interesting! It can be a complicated topic: right of first offer vs right of first refusal. I litigated a case over a dispute of right of first refusal (the original owner had an emotional attachment to the horse, but couldn’t afford to keep it. The new owner apparently made an effort to contact the original owner when she wanted to sell it, but the original owner had disappeared…until she filed a lawsuit 4 years later!). Thanks for the suggestion :)[/QUOTE]

Curious- how’d that end up?

[LegalEq]

It was really messy from a procedural standpoint (the new owner ignored the lawsuit from the original owner). But ultimately, the new owner ended up paying the value of the horse to the original owner, the horse was long gone to an innocent third party buyer.