SPARTANBURG, South Carolina. August 15, 2020 (FOX Carolina) — There is a push in Washington from several states to pass COVID liability protections. This would give businesses who are following CDC guidelines protections from COVID related claims. The South Carolina Chamber says that 32 states have something like this in place, but they are calling on South Carolina legislators to put something in place.
If this is brought forward and passed, businesses who follow the guidelines are protected. These protections wouldn’t be available to the non compliant businesses. Those businesses could still face legal action if they aren’t doing everything in their power to keep people safe. This effort is to protect businesses of all sizes against COVID-19 related lawsuits that could be brought against them when they are following guidelines that the CDC recommends. The South Carolina Chamber of Commerce are hoping South Carolina Legislatures will put protections in place to protect businesses from “frivolous” lawsuits.
Ted Pitts, SC Chamber, says, “Georgia Governor recently signed a bill. Mississippi recently passed a bill on the state level and basically it says that you cannot come and claim that you got the virus or got COVID or have a claim against a business that is following guidelines. You know if they are requiring masks, requiring social distancing, doing those things to keep people safe because the reality is even if you are a worker or a customer, you can’t prove where you got the virus from. This would limit those folks… those attorneys who would go after deep pockets.”
Those pockets that have already taken a hit due to the pandemic. The Spartanburg Chamber is also standing behind the state in this push to protect local businesses. “They say that a cat has nine lives and I can tell you that there are some businesses that are on the seventh and eighth life right now trying their best they can to get through this pandemic. And the last thing they need is a lawsuit,” says Allen Smith, with the Spartanburg Chamber of Commerce.
Smith believes, “now is the time where we need to be embracing legislation that is going to support, protect and create jobs and not threaten jobs. Businesses of all sizes are doing their very best they can to get through the pandemic and the last thing they need is to be operating under the threat of a frivolous lawsuit.” Especially the essential businesses that are essential to those serving our communities.
“We need our childcare centers open. They might be a police officer or a nurse and we need them to go to work so this would protect them,” Pitts believes, “if you stay up-to-date with the guidelines, you have some protection, a safe harbor for a frivolous lawsuit that would be brought against you by somebody claiming that you didn’t do something right.”
“They are doing the best they can to follow CDC guidelines because they want to stay open. They want to produce goods. They want to provide services. They want to make a profit, but when they are under the threat of potentially being sued frivolously, it makes it impossible to operate a business,” says Smith.
