Legal Blog Articles by William A. Baker

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) continues to make headlines under the leadership of Administrator Scott Pruitt. He recently announced an agency-wide directive to end “sue and settle” practices that involve the settlement of litigation intended to effect regulatory changes.

“The days of regulation through litigation are over,” Pruitt said in a press statement.  “We will no longer go behind closed doors and use consent decrees and settlement agreements to resolve lawsuits filed against the Agency by special interest groups where doing so would circumvent the regulatory process set forth by Congress. Additionally, gone are the days of routinely paying tens of thousands of dollars in attorney’s fees to these groups with which we swiftly settle.”