Humboldt County Settles Lawsuit Challenging Cannabis Cultivation Fees

Humboldt County, California, has settled a federal lawsuit filed over penalties issued by the county for illegal cannabis cultivation, Jefferson Public Radio reports. As part of the settlement, the county has also agreed to change how it issues citations for cannabis cultivation without a permit.

The lawsuit was filed by a group of homeowners who said the county levied fines against them without doing a proper inspection, and that the county relied on old satellite images taken of the previous property owners’ activities. Some of the plaintiffs faced fines as high as $10,000 per day, according to the report, which prompted the lawsuit four years ago.

Under the settlement, which came in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the county will waive all of the challenged fees, issue a public retraction of its allegations, and pay $350,000 to cover the plaintiffs’ legal costs.

Jared McClain, an attorney for the Institute for Justice, which represented the plaintiffs, said the ordeal “took much longer than they wanted,” but that “it will never have to take so long for anyone else going forward.”

“We wanted to make some broad policy changes and to make sure that this couldn’t happen again. We went through their code, and all the things that we had alleged were unconstitutional as part of the settlement agreement… the county now has to change all of those parts of its code.” — McClain, via JPR

Moving forward, the county will need to warn property owners before issuing any violations and give them 30 days to respond.

The county will also issue a public retraction of the allegations against the plaintiffs, and will pay $350,000 to cover their legal costs.