With lawmakers on Capitol Hill are hopeful that the next relief package including liability protections for businesses can be passed by July 4, several coalitions have been advocating for comparable legislation at the state level.
Fighting excessive litigation just as businesses are finally reopening would be a roadblock in the state’s economic recovery, Kyla Christoffersen Powell, president and CEO of the Civil Justice Association of California (CJAC) said in an email response to the Northern California Record.
“California’s essential businesses have made extraordinary efforts, in spite of their own hardships, to continue to provide necessary goods and services during the COVID-19 pandemic,” Powell said. “As the lockdown lifts and the fragile process of rebuilding the economy begins, a coming wave of predatory lawsuits aims to exploit the very businesses that helped us weather this crisis.”
Christoffersen Powell
“We must recognize the threat these lawsuits pose to California’s economic recovery,” Powell told the Record. “This is why two groups of California legislators, along with the Civil Justice Association of California and a broad coalition of over 40 industry organizations have asked Governor Newsom to issue an executive order protecting essential businesses from excessive liability.”
Additionally, a group of 21 state attorneys general wrote to Congressional leaders last week, requesting protections at the federal level for states to build upon.
“In the wake of this unprecedented crisis, the extension of appropriate post-pandemic liability protections is needed at both the state and federal levels for businesses, manufacturers of personal protective equipment, first responders, healthcare workers, healthcare facilities, and members of law enforcement, among others,” the attorneys general wrote.
The CJAC letter asks Newsom to issue an executive order or urgency legislation.
“California has been proactive throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and needs to act now to get in front of the impending lawsuit surge against essential businesses,” Powell told the Record.
On the U.S. Senate floor last week, Senate Judiciary Committee member John Cornyn (R-TX), who is helping draft the federal legislation, said, “Even if businesses and hospitals follow all the relevant guidelines and act in good faith, they could end up fighting a very long and a very expensive lawsuit. They could end up winning that lawsuit, but they could also end up going bankrupt in the process.”
Blanket immunity is not the goal of the legislation, Cornyn said, adding, “Leader {Mitch] McConnell and I, and others, are working on a proposal that would put commonsense reforms in place and protect those acting in good faith from being sued into oblivion.”