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Reopening + Business Liability

Reopening + Business Liability

As the state of Texas and states across the nation begin phasing in plans to re-open the economy, both business and consumer are doing their best to navigate a new environment created by the COVID-19 pandemic. Safety is everyone’s top priority, but as unemployment claims continue to increase and businesses close, preventing further economic disaster and promoting recovery are also crucial to our well-being.

One major hurdle to recovery is business liability and the fear that many business owners have that they will be sued even if they take recommended health precautions to make their workplace as safe as possible. A survey of businesses in South Carolina found that upwards of 60 percent of businesses feared re-opening their doors for the threat of a lawsuit being brought against them.

Thankfully, Congress can act and help businesses safely re-open to act as a catalyst for broader economic recovery for all Americans. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for Legal Reform found broad, bipartisan support for temporary, targeted business liability protections that would shield businesses from frivolous lawsuits as they re-open. Bad actors must certainly still be held accountable, but guidelines released by the U.S. Chamber would protect good-faith actors who are earnestly trying to safely re-open their business. These guidelines include:

  • Businesses that work to follow government guidelines against COVID-19 exposure claims.
  • Healthcare providers and facilities on the front lines of the COVID-19 response.
  • Manufacturers that repurposed production and distribution to provide PPE, sanitizers, and other needed countermeasures.
  • Companies that have donated their stock of supplies to hospitals and medical professionals.
  • Public companies that could face securities lawsuits, including those driven largely on stock price drops resulting from the global pandemic under the spurious assertion that management failed to warn investors.
The National Federation for Independent Business (NFIB) has also released business liability reform guidelines that they would like to see Congress enact:
  • The Workers Compensation system should be the exclusive vehicle employees who suffer serious physical injury from COVID-19 at work use to adjudicate their claims.
  • Businesses should be protected from liability to customers and other third parties unless those customers or parties prove the business knowingly failed to develop and implement a reasonable plan for reducing the risk of exposure to COVID-19 and that failure caused the injury.
  • Permitted lawsuits should be limited to persons who experience a serious physical injury due to COVID-19 resulting in hospitalization.
  • Fines should be imposed on unscrupulous trial attorneys bringing frivolous COVID-19-related lawsuits.
Make no mistake; the business community is not interested in protections for reckless, bad-faith actors who are not promoting safe environments for their employees or customers. But in order to stop the bleeding of this economic disaster, we need to support the ability of businesses to safely re-open so they can keep Americans on payroll and provide essential services to their customers.

On June 1 the Lubbock Chamber is partnering with Matthew Webb, Senior VP with the U.S. Chamber’s Institute for Legal Reform, for a webinar to provide local businesses with the latest information on business liability legislation. You can register at this link
 to participate in this important discussion.

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