Brexit: the impact on agricultural disputes

Given the level of complexity and uncertainty involved post-Brexit it's difficult to predict what the outcome will be but here are some trends we may begin to see in agricultural disputes:

• Land disputes – the majority of agricultural disputes relate to land – the biggest asset of most farming operations by far. If there is an impact on land values then that feeds into the desire for people to bring claims in respect of their land.
• Support systems – coming out of the CAP and replacing those systems with new support provisions (and it is surely an inevitability that they will be replaced almost in full, at least in the short term) will throw up a lot of challenges concerning the implementation, registration and regulation of such schemes. 
• Contracts – if the farming landscape changes significantly then that inevitably has an impact on contractual relationships. Some of those will be long term and may not have anticipated such a significant change. We may see efforts to renegotiate or come out of unattractive contracts.
• Tenancies – there has been a great deal of pressure in respect of agricultural tenancies over the last couple of years. If fundamental changes are made, possibly tagged on to changes in support regimes, this will result in multiple issues arising between landlords and tenants.