Change Wildlife Habitat Lawsuits?????
Environmental and Animal Rights groups use the Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA) to get reimbursed and pay all their legal fees with lawsuit after lawsuit. I believe they can get reimbursed even if they don’t win everything in their lawsuit as stated below:
“To recover under EAJA, a claimant must show that it is a "prevailing party." Parties are considered to be prevailing parties when they have been successful on any significant issue in litigation that achieves some of the benefit the parties sought.”
The reason these groups can do this is from a loophole that allows 501(c)(3) organizations to recover funds under the EAJA.
Has there been any attempt from hunting organizations or people working with their congress reps to eliminate or change this loophole so environmental and animal rights groups cannot get lawyer and attorney fees paid for? Is this something we should start working on or even possible? Would be extremely positive for hunters, anglers and natural resource managers.