Coronavirus Has Unleashed an Epidemic of Law Suits and Lawyers

The Coronavirus Has Unleashed An Epidemic of Law Suits A mantra of trial law is “Sue the Bastards; Sue’em All.” Send in the lawyers when a disaster hits. File the class action suits. The 40,000+ deaths so far in the United States are a tragedy, a needless tragedy. Over 10,000 Americans have perished in nursing home and assistant living facilities. Sue the nursing homes. Family members have every right to be emotionally distraught over the deaths of their loved ones. Litigation will probably drive most of these facilities into bankruptcy with the plaintiffs splitting defendants’ liability insurance policies. Scores of crew members and passengers died, became ill, and were contained on cruise ships for extended periods of time. Sue Carnival, Royal Caribbean, and Norwegian Cruise Lines. They should have warned. Sue China! Missouri’s complaint is a beautifully drafted personal complaint. China calls it “absurd.” Join the private law suits against the sovereign government of China. These complaints are glorified wallpaper. China has sovereign immunity. Sue the airlines for not refunding prepaid airfares, even though Delta has already refunded $534 million. Sue the colleges and universities for either not refunding or insufficiently refunding tuition, room and board and fees for the spring semester. Sue churches for conducting religious services with parishioners. Sue governors for their emergency lockdown orders. Sue the insurance companies to force coverage under policies that don’t cover pandemics. Sue the banks distributing the Coronavirus relief funds because your small business client didn’t get any. The big banks processed the applications for their big customers, putting them at the front of the queue under the Federal Payroll Payback Program, cutting off the small businesses the act was intended to benefit. 150 public companies received $600 million in PPP loans. That may have been technically legal (I haven’t read the fine print) and business wise, but it’s stupid. These banks will face a payback. Sue Fox News because of their early reporting on the pandemic. Sue Magic Mountain Amusement Park for collecting monthly payments when the Park is closed. Sue StubHub for not refunding ticket prices. Sue employers for employees dying of the virus. Sue employers for wrongful termination. Sue Amazon and others for price gouging and overcharging. Sue hospitals and first responders for negligence. We are all brilliant with the benefit of hindsight. The best test of foreseeability is after the fact. Many of these lawsuits represent legitimate claims. Others are lawyers playing the lottery game of Torts.