The past two decades have shown us that catastrophes and economic downturns can unleash tidal waves of lawsuits. After the attacks on September 11th, we witnessed a flood of filings that tested the limits of real estate insurance and health coverage policies for businesses and first responders at Ground Zero. Similarly, the Great Recession brought lawsuits against major financial institutions, claims alleging investors and regulators had intentionally been misled for years. What legal actions will the coronavirus pandemic bring?
Coronavirus Enters the Courts
As of May 19, 2020, 1,155 coronavirus-related complaints have been filed in federal and state courts across the United States. New York and California lead the nation with the most filings. However, unlike the Great Recession or the attacks on 9/11, the legal implications for the COVID-19 pandemic are different in their breadth and in their scale. These implications are raising new questions about the meanings of negligence, causation, and liability, terms that had previously been defined and adjudicated in contexts of normality. But what happens when a pandemic creates a new normal?
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