The novel coronavirus, COVID-19 has changed the world irrevocably. Life will never be the same again. Parts of the world are cautiously emerging from a hard lockdown where all businesses except essential businesses were closed and residents were told to shelter-in-place in an attempt to control and prevent the virus’s spread. The virus peak has passed for many countries like the USA, UK, Germany, Italy, China, and France.
What is Personal Injury or Tort Law?
By way of answering this question, let’s consider the following definitions.
A tort, or personal injury, is “an act or omission that gives rise to injury or harm to another and amounts to a civil wrong for which courts impose liability.”
And the tort law, or personal injury law, is the set of statutes that aims to “provide relief to injured parties for harms caused by others, to impose liability on parties responsible for the harm, and to deter others from committing harmful acts.”
The salient point here, according to a Portland personal injury attorney, is that the burden of proof is on the injured party or plaintiff to prove that the action or lack of action was the legally recognizable cause of the injury.
Filing a personal injury claim during COVID-19
One of the best ways to demonstrate the process involved when considering filing a personal injury claim is to cite a case study. Thus, let’s consider the following scenario:
US nursing homes have become COVID-19 hotspots. On 11 April 2020, the number of people living in nursing homes and had succumbed to the virus was almost 12 000 people. At one point, the nursing home deaths were so high that the nursing home industry was pushing US states to grant them explicit immunity from personal injury lawsuits. Some states have complied with this request, and some states have not. Other states have granted immunity to healthcare providers and frontline healthcare workers during this pandemic.
However, let’s assume that your elderly grandfather (or father) had severe dementia, was in a nursing home, and succumbed to the COVID-19 virus. You strongly believe that your grandfather died as a consequence of the lack of prevention measures taken by the nursing home staff. Things like using hand sanitizer, face masks, and other personal protection equipment (PPE) items were ignored.
What recourse do you have?
As highlighted above, if you can prove that the nursing home is at fault, and they could have done more to protect your grandfather to save his life, you can file a personal injury lawsuit against the nursing home.
However, pursuing a personal injury claim against the nursing home is never as straightforward as it sounds. Thus, it is best to consult with a personal injury legal expert, who will review the case to determine its veracity. Once your attorney has assessed the case and believes that you can fulfill the burden of proof obligation, (s)he will start the process by contacting the nursing home’s legal representatives.
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Your attorney will do everything possible to negotiate a settlement before filing a personal injury claim at the civil court and will continue to do so throughout the legal process until it ends up before a court judge.
