WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) – Americans favor protections from coronavirus lawsuits for businesses, according to poll results released by a national legal reform group.
And among those businesses that could be targets for personal injury lawyers, grocery stores and pharmacies are the most popular with those asked in a Public Opinion Strategies poll conducted for the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform.
The ILR owns Legal Newsline.
The main question asked is whether Congress should pass lawsuit-protection measures. Only 27% oppose them, while 61% support, 2% refused to answer and 10% said they didn’t know.
The 61% support was split nearly evenly between respondents who “strongly support” and those who “somewhat support.” Only 8% “strongly oppose” the protections.
Republicans in Congress are pushing for the help for businesses, saying it is essential to economic rebound and medical treatment. In a recent statement, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House of Representatives Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said “Americans on the front lines of this fight must receive strong protections from frivolous lawsuits.”
States are grappling with the same question, and around a dozen have passed legislation to protect the health care industry.
Targets for personal injury lawyers are seemingly endless as non-essential businesses attempt to decide in reopened states whether to open their doors to customers and employees.
Litigation so far has mostly come against the insurance industry as businesses try to invoke “business interruption” clauses in their policies. But there are examples of personal injury cases too – like a Chicago lawsuit against Walmart and a Tennessee law firm advertising for clients who were made sick during an outbreak at a nursing home.
The Democrat-led House will be the major impediment any protections. Last year, it attempted to force through a measure that would have expanded liability to a wide range of businesses over a certain chemical found in firefighting foam and nonstick cookware by attaching it to a military spending bill, but Senate Republicans refused to adopt it.
Senate Republicans have promised that liability protections will be the sticking point in future coronavirus stimulus legislation. The Trump Administration has also pushed for certain liability safeguards.
Speaking on a recent episode of Steve Bannon's podcast, the spokesman for a pro-Trump Super PAC railed against plaintiffs lawyers and their roles in the pandemic.
“If there’s any group of people who can stop an American renaissance and would gladly do so, it’s trial lawyers, who I think as a group are some of the most evil people, quite frankly, in America, and they smell blood right now,” said Steve Cortes, spokesman for America First.
“So it’s not going to be easy to deter them… Speed is of the essence here. This is not something that can wait, in my view, until the fall to deal with.
“(I)f you were to tell me, ‘give me the negatives, give me the cons-argument as to why this can’t happen,’ unfortunately, liability, insurance companies, trial lawyers – those are massive hurdles for us to get over in this recovery."
The American Association for Justice - the national group for plaintiffs lawyers - opposes the proposed liability shield.
"The health and safety of all Americans must come first," the group recently tweeted. "That's why holding corporations accountable for failing to protect workers and consumers is more important now than ever."
Protection from lawsuits would likely not be blanket; it would simply require plaintiffs lawyers to make allegations of gross negligence or reckless conduct.
For essential businesses like grocery stores and pharmacies, 84% of those polled favored protection, and 82% favored it for restaurants when they are allowed to reopen.
For companies who ask employees with COVID-19 symptoms to work at home, 74% favored protections.
Another industry facing litigation – the hand sanitizer business – should be protected, 75% said.
The telephone survey was conducted April 23-27 and has a margin of error of 3.5%.