Why Litigation is a Powerful Tool for Helping Farm Animals

Litigation is the process of resolving legal disputes through the court system. Because court rulings are legally binding and carry enforceable penalties, litigation is one of the strongest ways to obtain leverage over a business or individual.

For example, if a factory farm is sued for animal welfare violations and receives a court ruling telling them to fix their practices, they generally have two options:

• Stop committing the animal welfare violations; or
• Ignore the court ruling and face serious consequences such as jail time, forfeiture of property, or fines.

This creates a strong incentive for individuals and organizations to obey court rulings.

Overall, there are three main types of litigation outcomes that can benefit animals:

• Court Rulings: These can involve outcomes such as a court ordering a farm to stop engaging in a practice, or requiring them to pay a fine.
• Precedent Creation: Every court ruling creates legal precedent, which in some circumstances has the same effect as creating a new law. For example, in Utah, litigation by an animal charity resulted in legal precedent that protects the right of individuals to record footage of factory farms.
• Settlements: These can involve outcomes such as a factory farm agreeing to stop engaging in a practice, or agreeing to pay restitution.

Compared to most interventions, litigation outcomes are relatively easy to assess because they are often publicly accessible and written by independent third parties (i.e. courts). This combination of (1) high leverage and (2) high verifiability leads us to consider litigation to be a strong intervention for helping farm animals.

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