Equine Law Blog

Answer

In my opinion, yes. Let me share some examples:

As someone familiar with the equine industry, I’ve been able to scrutinize the opposing party’s expert witness in litigation to a greater degree, I believe, than the practitioner who lacks Equine Law expertise. This has made a major difference in lawsuits I've handled. 

Several years ago, for example, I convinced a court to grant my motion to strike the opposing party’s expert witness because I argued that the particular expert was not qualified to offer expert testimony to assist the jury. The judge agreed, and I ultimately won the jury trial.

Also, I’ve drafted especially effective discovery requests that can get to the heart of a legal matter.  A case I handled years ago involved the sale of a $400,000 champion show horse stallion. The buyer filed a lawsuit against the seller (my client) 4 years after the sale, claiming that the horse was lame. In the earliest part of the case, I served an interrogatory (written question) on the plaintiff/buyer in which I asked him to identify all of the insurers that insured the stallion with a policy of equine insurance. Thereafter, I subpoenaed the insurance records and learned that the plaintiff – who was asserting in this federal lawsuit the horse was lame from the moment of purchase and for the years that followed – was representing to the insurance companies that the horse was completely sound.  Upon confronting the plaintiff’s attorney with this evidence, his client quickly dropped the case. In my opinion, it took an understanding of the equine industry, and of equine insurance, to make that quick result possible.