At the Law Offices of Vincent J. Ciecka, P.C., we have over 40 years of experience as a firm within a wide variety of legal fields. From being your go-to accident lawyer to working on liability cases, we work around the clock to keep all clients in the best legal shape we can muster. We also seek to inform our clientele base about the latest developments in the legal realm — especially now in the face of the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic and its resulting economic impact. With that in mind, we’d like to shine a light on one particular “answer” that many feel will aid in the economy’s recovery, business immunity from lawsuits, and why we believe that this is not the proper way to help businesses.
Negligence in Healthcare
Places like nursing homes, hospitals, and other medical-related facilities have been the centerpiece of this entire pandemic. While many employees at these businesses have saved lives, there is no level of accountability being enforced upon the management and higher administration of some of these facilities when it comes to unnecessary COVID-19 related deaths.
Instead of making it easier for victims to receive their proper justice for administrative negligence, many states have raised the bar for these lawsuits to be valid. This practice is intended to relieve those medical facilities from the burden of an unprecedented pandemic, but it instead makes victims of poor management and health measures in these businesses suffer in silence. The blanket immunity that the government has bestowed onto these organizations, especially on the administrative sides, is not going to have a positive impact on the economy. Instead, it will exacerbate the flaws of healthcare as a business venture and lessen trust in the industry due to the death toll and lack of accountability for mismanagement.
Health Risks and Business Immunity
There are particular businesses throughout the United States that have been havens for the COVID-19 virus to spread. In particular, meat manufacturers have been hot spots for this activity. By giving these businesses immunity from lawsuits meant to hold them accountable for lack of safety and health precaution enforcement, they inevitably get the green light to neglect the well-being of workers to increase profits. While giving these businesses immunity is seen as a way to encourage reopening the economy, the working class that maintains the majority of the population will suffer without legal means to hold their employers responsible for injuries, illnesses, and potentially deaths because of it.
Reopening Regulation Enforcement
Many states, including New Jersey and Pennsylvania, have various levels of regulations put in place for local businesses as they reopen this summer. However, the blanketed levels of business immunity and lack of general enforcement on these regulations cause massive concern. As citizens come back and try to establish new normalcy, it is up to both businesses and governments to ensure the safety of the people rather than the financial gains of the institutions themselves. If these temporary laws are not enforced evenly across the population, their effectiveness is greatly diminished and could aid in further damage to the well-being and stability of our lives.
What We Think
At the Law Offices of Vincent J. Ciecka, P.C., we think that no company should be above the law. In these times, people are suffering, and holding those responsible accountable is a critical step in healing the nation as a whole.
We think the business regulations should be legally upheld, and that companies not taking the proper health precautions should be held responsible for the injuries and deaths they cause through their negligence. As personal injury lawyers serving the South Jersey area, we are working to help our clients fight these poorly implemented immunity clauses and overall receive the justice they deserve.
If you require representation in a personal injury case relating to the COVID-19 outbreak, contact us today for more information on what we can do for you.