WASHINGTON, United States
Video conferencing applications and online courses have flourished during the covid-19 pandemic, but so have other more contentious issues: lawsuits.
More than 1,300 complaints Coronavirus-related cases have been filed with the United States courts, according to the daily count by the law firm Hunton Andrews Kurth.
“Covid has divided the United States and has had vast political implications,” Lawrence Gostin, a professor of public health law at Georgetown University, told AFP.
“There is a conflict between public health and freedom (…), all kinds of freedoms such as the right to work, to freedom, to protest and to buy a firearm.”
And how The United States is a “highly litigious society”, He added, these conflicts often end in court.
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The first wave of lawsuits came from prisons and immigration detention centers, said Torston Kracht, a partner at the law firm Hunton Andrews Kurth. Prisoners have demanded early parole, arguing that the sanitary conditions at the facilities are poor and in some cases are exacerbating the detainees’ existing health problems.
Some prisoners, including Paul Manafort, Donald Trump’s former campaign manager, and his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, have secured an early release.
Others have engaged in epic legal battles. The United States government has just asked the Supreme Court to block the early release of 800 inmates from the Elkton Federal Correctional Institution in Ohio.
A federal judge in Cleveland ordered the men’s release after nine infected died.
In addition, several groups of employees have sued their employers to improve protection measures against the virus.
A union representing New York nurses has sued for more masks, gloves, and other protective equipment.
– “Force Majeure” –
In cases where protection measures were too few or too late, the relatives of victims have filed negligence claims. Employers like Walmart stores and meat processing company JBS have been sued, as have some nursing homes.
These complaints, however, have elicited a legislative response. Several states have introduced laws to protect healthcare providers from lawsuits, and Republicans in Congress want to give similar protection to companies.
“The COVID-19 pandemic will definitely have an effect on future legal relations,” said Kracht.
Beyond the legislative changes, he said, “I think that in the future we will see that recently negotiated force majeure clauses will directly address the issue of the pandemic.”
A second broad category of claims seeks compensation for financial losses.
Those who bought tickets for canceled events have filed a class action lawsuit against online booking site Ticketmaster, while others are seeking compensation for lost hotel or plane bookings, or even membership in gyms that have been closed for months.
Since the beginning of May, the demands of students seeking to recover tuition fees have increased. And business and store owners, forced to remain closed, have sued various government entities to challenge the confinement orders.
– Legal struggles of years –
Politicians have entered this thorny debate with several Republicans along the same lines as Trump – who has strongly pushed the idea of resuming activities quickly -, challenging the confinement orders issued by the Democratic governors of their states.
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So far, the responses of the courts have been mixed. The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that state’s confinement extension order illegal, even as judges in neighboring Michigan confirmed the legality of similar measures ordered by its governor.
Judges have also split on some of the country’s most controversial issues such as the churches’ right to re-celebrate religious services – Trump wants governors to consider these “essential” – and the right of women to have access to clinics. specialized for abortion.
As the country resumes activities, some of these demands will be debatable.
But in the courts, the coronavirus issue has not yet been exhausted.
“We will continue to see complaints related to covid-19, certainly for the duration of the pandemic, and probably for some time after,” Kracht said.
That will be clearer in the commercial sector, he added, noting that “companies have not yet been able to identify their true claims.”
Kracht then concluded that “for many years” there will be court litigation related to the virus.
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