East Texas court spikes COVID-19 negligence case

Lawsuits against employers started rolling in shortly after COVID-19 started taking its toll in Texas. In June 2021, however, the state legislature enacted the Pandemic Liability Protection Act (PLPA) to shield employers from liability for harm to employees allegedly caused by the virus. The first case dealing with the state law brings good news for employers. Read on.

PLPA means business (and is for business)

Whatever the reader might think of the Texas Legislature (we just call balls and strikes here at the newsletter), it knows how to achieve a goal in writing a law. During the COVID-19 outbreak, the objective was to eliminate financial exposure to employers (and all businesses) from lawsuits generated by the virus, and it did a bang-up job.

How? By erecting several barriers for employees between filing a lawsuit and striking paydirt! Here they are:

Barrier no. 1: evidence employer knowingly failed to act. Employees must prove the employer made a conscious and knowing decision not to warn them about a dangerous condition caused by COVID-19 or fix a coronavirus-related problem, thereby exposing them to harm.

Barrier no. 2: proof of employer’s failure to implement or comply with government-mandated protective standards. So, if barrier no. 1 is too hard for employees to establish, they can then tag the employer with liability if it knew about government standards designed to limit their exposure to the virus but decided to throw caution to the wind and not implement them.