Tell your lawmakers that your business needs to be protected from coronavirus exposure litigation
As state and local re-opening orders are phased in and Congress considers the next legislative package responding to coronavirus, more attention has been brought to protecting businesses from unfair coronavirus lawsuits. According to a recent NFIB survey, nearly 70% of small business owners are concerned about liability claims increases, while only 6% are not at all concerned.
NFIB encourages you to reach out to your U.S. Senators and Representatives here and tell them to protect your business in the next round of legislation.
It is important that elected officials hear from small business owners to ensure small businesses will be protected in legislation and not be exposed to costly and frivolous lawsuits due to coronavirus.
NFIB previously issued a set of Liability Protection Principles, intended to protect small businesses from the threat of unfounded lawsuits as they begin to reopen.
NFIB’s set of Liability Protection Principles are designed to address the legal issues of most concern to small business and which should be addressed in any legislation Congress passes. They include:
- 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.
