LawCall: Business Liability

Attorney Tommy Siniard discusses the liability of businesses reopening with cornoavirus issues still present.

Tommy siniard: you don't ever get to law, you just have to keep practicing law.

>> sharon doviet: people run businesses and about to reopen the business, governor ivey has let us reopen things.

What do business owners need to be cautious of?

Can they get sued over this thing?

>> tommy siniard: first thing, governor ivey signed a bill that gives protection to business owners from lawsuits.

Let's start with that.

It's a general heading.

And i'll tell you secondarily, because we do medical malpractice work, even if there wasn't that protection, it's very hard to prove where a germ came from.

>> sharon doviet: if i caught it and i want to sue somebody saying you gave it to me -- >> tommy siniard: you have to prove that the restaurant gave it to you, something they did or didn't do.

I think business owners are a little over the top worried about liability.

Between -- there's a presidential order granting immunity.

There's a bill signed by the governor, and just the difficulty of proving where a germ comes from, i don't think there's a huge amount to worry about.

Now, having practiced law forever, i do remember when we handled cases where two people went out and -- on date and one didn't tell the other one that they had a sexually transmitted disease, like herpes, and transmitted it to the innocent victim, and they were liable for that.

And for years the homeowners insurance covered that.

Now, they wrote that out of the homeowners coverage, but if you were a person that has been diagnosed with covid or, a stretcher point in that is somebody exposed to covid in their immediate family, let's say, and decides to go out bar hopping or restauranting or whatever, and you're with some people and they get it, you know, the business wouldn't have the liability, but the person that was so -- >> sharon doviet: cavalier.

>> tommy siniard: -- cavalier and arrogant to go out with it may have some financial responsibility.

>> sharon doviet: but this kind of -- >> tommy siniard: that's a tough stretch, too, but -- >> sharon doviet: you said it's kind of like mrsa, people wanting to -- >> tommy siniard: yeah, we handle cases -- people go to the hospital and say, i've got mrsa in the hospital, the methicillin resistant staph aureus.

A lot of people do in the best of hospitals.

But you have to prove where the germ came from.

Unless there's an outbreak in a wing or suite, it's difficult on infection control.

So nursing homes are a whole 'nother issue.

We thanle nursing home abuse and -- we handle nursing home abuse and neglect.

Before there was coronavirus virus, there was infection control in nursing homes.

Not bad people work in nursing homes.

Just not enough.

The problem in nursing homes they are typically understaffed by employees who are not well-trained enough to take care of the population with as many problems as they have.

And so that's why you see this crescendo of cases in a nursing home setting.

The germs aren't saying, let's go to the nursing home.

There's a problem there before the covid virus.

>> sharon doviet: and you guys always advise people with family members in nursing home, be there on an irregular schedule, see what you can see, keep your eyes open.

Now you can't even do that.

>> tommy siniard: our number way way to protect people is go at irregular times, go saturday night instead of monday first shift and different times and days and be the squeaky wheel.

Now you can't go in, so that's another problem, because what aren't they doing that