The Phony Issue of Covid19 Immunity From Lawsuits Is Being Used by the Republican Senate to Deny Survival Aid to Millions of Desperate Americans
I try not to get political when writing about my personal injury/medical malpractice/civil rights cases, but I must make an exception when millions of my fellow Americans, who are unemployed or facing eviction, are being used as pawns by the Republican Senate in stalling pandemic-related relief to them unless Republicans get their decades old wish of limiting personal injury/medical malpractice lawsuits using the pandemic as an excuse.
The Republican Senate’s insistence on protection of businesses from Covid19-related lawsuits is really a phony excuse to hold up aid to millions of poor, unemployed and otherwise desperate Americans who need aid for food, shelter and other necessities. We as Americans must not let our friends and neighbors be crushed by Mitch McConnell and his corporate lobbyist “friends”.
We cannot sit idle when the Senate Republicans have cruelly denied the necessary financial assistance to people who have lost their jobs after living from paycheck to paycheck when corporations and the very richest prosper during this devastating pandemic. The Democratic House of Representatives passed a $3 Trillion Covid19 relief bill in May, 2020 (the HEROES Act) yet the Senate had not even negotiated with the House about the bill until very recently.
Instead of saving the most vulnerable Americans and their state and local governments (very much at risk financially due to the cost of the pandemic and putting them on the verge of massive layoffs of police, first responders, teachers, sanitation workers and other municipal employees), the Republican Senate has created a phony issue of Covid19 liability immunity for corporations, businesses, nursing homes and others as a condition for agreeing to allocating some government funding for those in need (the Republican Senate has proposed $2 Trillion less than that proposed by the Democratic House).
The real truth is that succeeding in a Covid19 personal injury or wrongful death suit is a very difficult proposition under the law since proving a customer or patron contracted the virus due to the negligence of a particular establishment is a very high hurdle to jump over. That is fine. One should have reasonable standards of proof to succeed in a case. Blanket immunity from lawsuits for such corporations/businesses or nursing homes is not the answer. If a nursing home unreasonably created conditions leading to the spread of the virus in confined quarters, why shouldn’t the residents or their families have recourse to sue and have their day in court before a jury? Why should insurance companies (the entity that almost always defends and pays out settlements/judgments in successful cases when victims prove their cases) be allowed to collect premiums from businesses but be protected from paying out compensation when their insureds (businesses/corporations) are negligent and the cause of injuries and deaths to others? It will be very hard to prove most Covid19 liability cases. The Senate wants to make it impossible. Apparently, some form of financial protection for employers who create unsafe and unsanitary workplaces is another issue being pushed by the Republicans who obviously support employer profits over worker safety during a pandemic. Why? Because the US Chamber of Commerce and insurance companies support Republican Senators and favor the destruction of our civil justice jury system to increase profits? You want a law to protect wrongdoers and encourage more wrongdoing without consequences?
If you agree that our most vulnerable Americans deserve government assistance in their unparalleled time of need, call or email your senator and congressperson to voice your concern. Contact information is available at https://www.senate.gov/ and https://www.house.gov/. The business and insurance lobbies put their profits over the greater good of hard-working and vulnerable Americans and are trying to use the Covid19 crisis to rip apart the civil justice jury system and at the same time limit aid to the most needy. Remember, the real power lies with We the People. Use your power. Tell your representatives where you stand. If they don’t agree, never forget what you just did in November – vote in the ones who support your values and vote out the ones who don’t. They work for you. Not the other way around.
For a more complete understanding of this issue, please click on my media interviews below (also available on my media page):
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/21/are-businesses-in-danger-of-coronavirus-lawsuits-as-they-reopen.html
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