A Pennsylvania judge ruled against a couple guys who signed a lease without getting competent counsel.  If they’d gotten competent counsel, they would have ended up in an entirely different position than they are in right now and probably wouldn’t have even had to go to court.

Competent counsel would have helped them either:

1. understand that the lease they signed did not do what they wanted it to, and so managed their expectations so that when the company did what it did they would have known that was something the company could do, or
2. (and even better) get changes made to the lease so that the company could not do what it did.

Either way would have been better than filing a lawsuit after the fact, spending tens of thousands of dollars for lawyers fees, and losing in court.

You can read the article for yourself, but the long and short of it is this.  Camp Ne’er Too Late signed a lease and two separate pipeline right of way agreements with East Resources which then sold it’s rights in the lease to SWEPI (the drilling arm of Shell).  SWEPI drilled one well, capped it, and then put a pipeline across the property.

Original plans called for up to 11 wells, and the owners of Camp Ne’er Too Late figured they would be rolling in the dough.  When they realized that the rest of the property wasn’t going to be developed, they sued.  Unfortunately, the plans and maps that they were shown during negotiations were not part of the final lease.

Also unfortunately, the final lease didn’t say anything about continued development.

In fact, without even seeing the lease we’re willing to bet that there was a clause in there that said the company could either develop or not at it’s own pleasure.  That’s extremely common in oil and gas leases.  It also looks like harmless legalese, so the owners of Camp Ne’er Too Late probably just breezed right over it.

We can’t really blame them.  They didn’t know any better.

You can learn from their expensive experience.  Don’t make the same mistake they did.  Don’t just breeze over your lease thinking you know what it says and does.  It can come back to bite you in the butt.

Now you are forewarned.  Get an experienced and knowledgeable attorney to review your lease before you sign it.  It can save you a lot of heartache, and net you a lot more money in the long run.  Call the office at 304-473-1403 to get help.