Winston Churchill’s aphorism, “Never let a good crisis go to waste,” is not going unheeded by the plaintiffs’ bar.
On Friday, USA Today published an important story about how potentially massive amounts of COVID-19 litigation by plaintiffs’ lawyers could threaten our economic stability and recovery. My colleague Harold Kim, president of the Chamber’s Institute for Legal Reform, and I offered key insights about the forthcoming litigation wave.
Please go read the whole thing, but here’s a small taste:
The coronavirus pandemic is imperiling more than lives and livelihoods. It’s also leading to lawsuits.
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“This early litigation is really, from our vantage point, the tip of the iceberg,” says Harold Kim, president of the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform.
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Business and insurance companies are preparing for an onslaught. “I worry the plaintiffs’ bar will bring opportunistic class action lawsuits down the road,” says Steven Lehotsky, chief counsel for the U.S. Chamber Litigation Center.
The U.S. Chamber’s Litigation Center and Institute for Legal Reform are tracking these early trends—new lawsuits being filed, plaintiffs’ task forces forming, new advertising and social media activity by the plaintiffs’ bar. We’re rallying the business community to prepare for a future onslaught.
And most importantly we’re working with our colleagues throughout the U.S. Chamber to ensure there are laws and policies to keep the public safe, sustain our economy while the world confronts this pandemic, and facilitate our economic resurgence once we’re through the worst.
The Litigation Center team and our partners will be blogging frequently about COVID-19 legal and litigation trends. We look forward to hearing from each of you about what we can do to help.
- Steve Lehotsky
