Farm Law and Ag Law Blog

  4 types of LLCs that can benefit farm operations TAGS:  RISK MANAGEMENT   FARM SUCCESSION   FARM OPERATIONS Tom J. Bechman LIMIT LIABILITY: Especially farms that operate semitrucks, even to haul their own grain, may want to consider separate LLCs for liability reasons, says lawyer John Schwarz II. If you don’t already operate your farm business through limited liability companies, see if one or more of these would work for you. Darrell Boone  | May 07, 2020 John Schwarz II, Royal Center, Ind., is a practicing lawyer and a farmer. He strongly believes in limited liability companies as a great way to structure your farm business. An LLC limits personal liabilities and provides other benefits. So why don’t more farmers use them? “The main reason is fear,” Schwarz says. “People fear things that sound complicated, and if you want to see farmers head for the door, just mention the dreaded words ‘more paperwork.’” Related:   Get your farm ready to 'play defense'...

Get your farm ready to 'play defense' TAGS:  INSURANCE   FARM SUCCESSION   RISK MANAGEMENT Darrell Boone PROTECT THE FARM: John Schwarz II jokingly calls himself “the lawyer with the tractor.” He works to convince farmers why they need to structure their business properly. Insurance is not enough. Select a business structure that provides personal liability protection. Darrell Boone  | May 06, 2020 News flash: Personal injury law is big business. There are hordes of personal injury lawyers, like “The Big Rig Lawyer” or “The Hammer,” promising to sue you and win a huge verdict for their clients and themselves. In contrast, lifelong farmer and ag law attorney John Schwarz II, Royal Center, Ind., operates a practice that helps farmers protect themselves in today’s precarious legal climate. Schwarz says many factors have drastically increased risk and liability. They include: an increase in farm accidents, up 13% in the past five years and 31% in the past 10 years more s...

Free National Farm Seminar "Strengthening and Sustaining Farms and Farmers" Join us for a free seminar featuring a dynamic group of local and nationally recognized individuals discussing the path farmers need to be on so as to strengthen their operations and also themselves. When:   February 5, 2020 Where:   Ivy Tech Community Campus, Logansport, Indiana.           On February 5, 2020, at 5:00 pm, there will be a seminar in Logansport, Indiana, at the Ivy Tech Community Room, located at:  1 Ivy Tech Way, Logansport, IN 46947.   Our seminar will focus on ways to strengthen your farm and yourself.   We have been blessed with being able to bring in a strong lineup of speakers from across the County.                For many farmers, times are still very tough in agriculture.   The down economic conditions continue to persist with some saying such will ...

Last month we covered the Doctrine of Title by Acquiescence.   T he law of  acquiescence  pertains to adjoining property owners who are either mistaken where the line between properties are, or agree that a fence or barrier that is not on the legal boundary line is to be considered the legal boundary line.   So, under the law of acquiescence, land can be gained or lost by mistake or by agreement.             Another doctrine where land can be gained or lost is the Doctrine of Adverse Possession, sometimes referred to as “squatter’s rights”.   Adverse Possession occurs where a person in  possession  of land owned by someone else may acquire valid title to it, so long as certain requirements are met.   It arises from English common law, where land in England was continuously changing hands not via purchases, but conquest, pillage, theft, etc.   The theory was that if you could sho...

            Rarely does a person agree or consent to lose part of their land.   However, such can happen in cases where a fence between neighbors turns out to not be on the legal boundary line.      The norm is that a fence between neighbors is erected on the legal boundary line between the two adjacent properties.   However, sometimes landowners have a mistaken belief that the fence marks the legal boundary line between two properties when it actually does not.    Other times the adjacent landowners agree to treat an existing fence not on the legally boundary line as the legal boundary line.   No matter the various circumstances, a fence that is believed to mark the legal boundary line, and turns out to not be the case, usually leads to a dispute at some point.             How does the law generally treat these instances where an individual is acquiescent to a boundary fe...

                                 This past week Congress was actually able to agree on something and the Family Farmer Relief Act of 2019 was passed.  The Act serves to raise the current debt limit for Chapter 12 from 4.2 million to 10 million.  Some have bemoaned this as only helping “big farms’, whatever that is, but in an era where a combine can approach a half million dollars, many smaller or medium sized farms found themselves up against the previous debt limit.   Without the ability to utilize Chapter 12, instead of restructuring, the famer is generally liquidating.             In helping many farm clients over the past year who have been experiencing financial difficulties, I am simply amazed at the inability of some lending institutions to work with the farmer who is experi...