We’ve been covering Natural Resources and Environmental Law in Oklahoma recently, and this post will summarize these last few articles. I wrote this blog series due to the fact that an increasing amount of landowners in Oklahoma are encountering environmental destruction. We all want to see development and the state economy thrive, but not at the expense of our rights as landowners, and not without compensation for damage to our land and natural resources. The purpose of this series was to inform Oklahoma residents of their rights and that there are law firms – like this one – that have expertise, experience, and courage in handling these types of lawsuits.

 Protecting Your Land and Natural Resources in Oklahoma

What do you do when someone destroys, pollutes, or injures you land? You take action to correct and preserve what precious natural resources you have, and obtain compensation from the party responsible for the pollution, destruction, or injury. This is exactly what I do for my clients: take the wrongdoers to court and get as much money as possible for my clients.

Your land is valuable. You must guard it. With all the drilling, construction, and development going on in Oklahoma, you must safeguard your land from those looking to make a quick profit without regard to how much damage they cause along the way. I’ve previously written about lawsuits over damage to trees and timber. In this article, I will summarize the basic scenarios where you need a lawyer to legally protect your land and natural resources.

What kind of situations lead to environmental damage?

Developers often purchase large amounts of acreage, looking to develop the land in residential subdivisions, new shopping centers, or even for industrial use. In the course of that development, they may drive across land or areas of land not belonging to them or without permission; may create their own dirt roads where they don’t belong, and may demolish and remove whatever grass, brush, or timber they need to complete their unauthorized task.

Oil companies may injure land in the process of drilling for mineral interests. Or they may cause great damage to the land while not even in the course of drilling but just during various trips on the land.

Governments, likewise, can also be liable for damage caused to a person’s land, grass, trees, and other natural resources, such as streams and ponds. If you think about, governments have much potential to cause great damage, as they control reservoirs, septic and sewage systems. Government mismanagement of sewer lagoons can cause catastrophic damage to affected lands.

Engineers and general contractors can also be involved or wholly responsible for environmental catastrophes. These companies are usually in charge of large projects, and therefore they are in control of the machines of destruction that cause damage to landowners.

These are just some of the usual suspects we see in typical landowner rights cases.

I have represented clients involving sewage back-ups in urban areas, as well as Oklahoma Ranches that have been flooded with wastewater from overflowing sewage lagoons. In either scenario, my job is to abate the nuisance — that is, have the court order the defendant to cease whatever activity is causing the sewage flooding; and to obtain as much compensation as the law allows for my clients, so they can be made whole again.

What to do now?

If you are suffering from damage or destruction to your land, livestock, trees, ponds, rivers or streams, call us to discuss your case. We have the experts, the money, and the experience to litigate your claims and obtain compensation for your loss, with no up-font expenses to you.

Our environmental lawsuits are always taken on a contingency basis:  We charge the client nothing unless we win and we finance all the litigation expenses!