In the News

As businesses prepare to reopen, business owners are left to make difficult decisions about how best to keep the business running while protecting customers and employees and fending off potential liability.

It’s the latest Disney experience: waivers of Covid-19 liability for one and all! The novel coronavirus “is an extremely contagious disease that can lead to severe illness and death,” Disney, while also reassuring that they have adopted “enhanced health and safety measures” now warns its potential customers: “By visiting Walt Disney World Resort, you voluntarily assume all risks related to exposure.”

“Facing record unemployment and an unprecedented financial crisis, we must take immediate and swift action to protect our state’s job creators and our healthcare industry from crippling litigation that would certainly delay the full recovery of our economy. Federal action is the swiftest course to provide liability protections, and we ask for your leadership and support for such measures in the next phase of COVID-19 recovery legislation.”

At a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, representatives advocated for a temporary shield against litigation – though they stopped short of asking for protection in instances of gross negligence. Targets for personal injury lawyers in a coronavirus world are seemingly endless, as Legal Newsline has previously reported.

Hospitals are warning they will be slow to restart elective procedures like knee surgeries and colonoscopies without assurances from Congress they won’t get sued by patients and their own workers if they are infected by the coronavirus during those visits.

Like moths drawn to a flame, the trial bar in America is gearing up to cash in on this virus. The trial attorneys are developing new and creative ways to sue employers who may have employees who developed the coronavirus.

As we restart the economy, U.S. businesses that survive the novel coronavirus pandemic could now face a lawsuit pandemic. That is why Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is insisting that any further covid-19 relief legislation include liability protections for U.S. businesses. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) calls that “disgraceful.” No, what is disgraceful would be to leave already battered U.S. businesses exposed to legions of overzealous trial lawyers who are champing at the bit to file frivolous lawsuits.

After June 1, Texas courts might begin to hold some hearings in courthouses again, but it’s going to look different compared to pre-coronavirus times. Judges in face masks, constant courtroom cleanings, only two people per elevator and counsel tables moved six feet apart: These are some changes lawyers may notice when Texas courts start reopening.

A battle is emerging over how much Washington should seek to curb lawsuits that endanger America’s economic recovery. 

Right now, health care workers need to save lives, not worry about future lawsuits. That’s why governors in at least seven states have followed the urging of U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar to issue executive orders protecting hospitals and medical professionals against liability suits over injuries related to the pandemic.