As businesses work toward opening up and getting back to work, owners are wondering if they are opening themselves up to lawsuits.
“The legal consideration is up there with PPE and testing,” Baton Rouge Area Chamber president and CEO Adam Knapp told The Business Report.
The Baton Rouge Area Chamber has 70 members on its board of directors and the liability of doing business during the COVID-19 crisis is concerning to a great number of them, Liz Smith, senior vice president for competitiveness for the Baton Rouge Area Chamber told the Louisiana Record.
“Everybody is trying so hard to think through the different pieces of our new reality. How do you make sure that you can create safe environments? In thinking through all that, businesses are also very concerned about what making these decisions means for them and what consequences there might be on the back end," Smith said.
Smith gave the example of one member who owns a group of restaurants. “He is following all the guidance that is coming down on how to safely reopen a restaurant, but COVID-19 is out there in the community, and he is very fearful about having someone make a claim against him that they contracted Covid at his business.”
As Smith sees it, COVID-19 should be treated as something that is out in the community, the same way that the flu is.
“You can’t figure out exactly where it is contracted,” Smith said.
In the Chamber’s view, businesses need room to follow the guidance of CDC or OSHA officials who are setting the safety standards.
“We have to have some protections in place that limit liability and make sure that we don’t completely cool down a business that is intent on reopening,” Smith said.
“If businesses are following the guidance in good faith, then there should be a higher standard in terms of the liability that they face,” she told the Record. That standard could be gross negligence. It could be an intentional act or willful misconduct.
“Our feeling is that businesses should not be liable for damages, injury or death from Covid unless it is at that higher standard,” she said.
An important piece of any limited liability legislation to protect businesses from frivolous lawsuits during coronavirus is the time frame, Smith said.
“The protection needs to be linked to the coronavirus outbreak. This is something that should be pretty specific around Covid--not just the emergency declaration,” she said.
“Frankly, we may be out of the emergency situation but Covid will still be a real threat. We don’t want to limit the timing to only be under an emergency.".
Smith herself is eager to get back to the office environment. Just like any other business, the Chamber is figuring out the best way to do that.
"Where people are doing their very best to do what is right for the health and safety of their employees, their customers and the public, you want to give those folks the benefit of that good faith intention and implementation, so that we can all get back to business and back to our jobs," Smith said.