Plans by some states to reopen businesses amid the coronavirus pandemic opens the way to lawsuits against businesses by employees and customers, congressional Republicans say.
That’s got GOP lawmakers eyeing legislation to limit businesses’ liability.
“It’s going to be an issue that, potentially, we might have to get into,” Rep. Scott Perry, a Pennsylvania Republican, told the Washington Examiner. “I heard this initially, even from grocery stores, convenience stores that are trying to provide services in the way of sale of food and essentials — that if one of their employees gets sick, then are they going to close the store, which is essential for people?”
Plaintiff lawyers are already researching industries where COVID-19 lawsuits could be filed.
“These types of lawsuits will be born out of either tragedies or events,” plaintiff attorney Anthony Russo of the Russo Law Firm told the Washington Examiner. “I see several cottage industries being brought up.”
Russo cited nursing homes as an industry that could be targeted.
“Elderly people that are getting sick” could make such facilities ripe legal targets, Russo said.
White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow told CNBC on Monday that the administration is looking at ways to protect companies and businesses from liability related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Businesses, particularly small businesses that don’t have massive resources, should not be held liable — should not be held to trial lawyers putting on false lawsuits that will probably be thrown out of court,” Kudlow said. “You have to give the businesses some confidence here that if something happens, and it may not be their fault — I mean, the disease is an infectious disease.”
Trial lawyers have long been significant contributors to Democratic Party coffers. And Democrats generally would rather focus on workplace safety to protect workers in their physical working environment rather than shielding employers from lawsuit liability.
“I’ve never really heard of a business being sued because someone got sick unless it was the business’s fault. Nobody blames a business for the coronavirus,” Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat, told the Washington Examiner.
“You look at, like, these huge meatpacking companies, where I think 600 or 700 people come down with it,” said Raskin, formerly a tenured law professor at American University. “They would have an argument in court that they’re not responsible because OSHA hadn’t acted. So we really need federal regulations to define what are the proper social distancing protocols and what personal protective equipment are necessary for different kinds of workers.”
