The Stimulus 'Liability' Debate: Don't Forget Texas Elective Workers' Compensation
Originally published on Workers' Compensation Law Prof Blog. Reprinted with permission.
Listening in on Tuesday's Senate Hearing on Corporate Liability During the Coronavirus Pandemic – you can find the video here and do a text search for "workers' compensation" – I was especially pleased to hear workers' compensation immunity discussed at 1:14:20 to about 1:14:50. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island specifically asked whether blanket corporate immunity would constitute subsidization of workers' compensation insurers. Witness Professor David Vladeck of Georgetown University Law Center responded that it very well could if workers' compensation were not carved out of the bill. I did not hear anyone contend during the hearing that workers' compensation could not be part of an immunity blanket, which is food for thought.
Coincidentally, I had been reading in The Atlantic as the Senate hearing was commencing an exceptionally good and sobering account of the nearly catastrophic events unfolding in the meatpacking industry. I recommend the article to you generally, and there is one point made within it that warrants reflection.
Even if immunity conferred as a precondition for passing the next round of stimulus contains "only" stiff tort limitations, consider the situation potentially faced by certain …
Originally published on Legal Planet. Reprinted with permission.
Sen. Mitch McConnell is demanding that any future coronavirus relief law provide a litigation shield for businesses, and other conservative and business interests have made similar proposals. So far, the supporters of these proposals have engaged in some dramatic handwaving but haven't begun to make a reasoned argument in support of a litigation shield.
In this post, I'm going to limit myself to negligence suits against businesses. Basically, these lawsuits claim the plaintiff got the virus due to the failure of a business to take reasonable safety precautions.
Even without a business shield, these are not going to be easy cases to win. Plaintiffs will have to show that they were exposed to the virus due to the defendant's business operation, that better precautions would have prevented the exposure, and that they weren't exposed elsewhere.
Tort lawyers may be …
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