Trial Magazine

We could not have visualized virtual advocacy last year. Yet every day beginning in mid-March, AAJ’s entire Public Affairs team has been working at a frenetic pace from home offices and kitchen tables to block tort “reform.” With Washington, D.C., under a stay-at-home order since April 1, Congress mostly has been working remotely too, with calls and emails replacing in-person meetings. And because in most congressional offices there is not enough space for staff to socially distance, that will continue for the foreseeable future.

The bills AAJ was working on before the COVID-19 outbreak have mostly fallen by the wayside—instead Congress is largely focused on coronavirus bailout legislation. And AAJ is continuing to fight industry efforts to insert immunity proposals into these badly needed relief measures.

Protecting the vulnerable. During the first wave of proposals, we fought immunity provisions for hospital and health care facilities. The definition of “facility” in bills generally has included nursing homes and assisted living facilities, which were hit hard by COVID-19 and were ill-equipped to care for their residents as the virus rapidly spread among the nation’s most vulnerable.

Protecting employees. As some of the nation’s governors—particularly in southern states—pressed to reopen their economies, we pivoted to protecting employees. Employer immunity was complicated from the start, despite reports of sick and dying meat-processing workers who were forced to work shoulder to shoulder without necessary personal protective equipment.

Contemplating the next COVID-19 bailout package, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) made it clear that no bailout relief would be available to state and local governments unless employers were given immunity. AAJ, along with a coalition of over 100 consumer, labor, health, and legal organizations—including the AFL-CIO and the Teamsters, Public Citizen, Consumer Reports, the NAACP, and the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights—sent a letter to House and Senate leadership opposing these immunity provisions. In that letter, we demanded that workers not be forced to choose between their health and safety and a paycheck.

We’ve found that in industry’s push for broad employer immunity, corporations that disregarded safety before COVID-19 continue to do so during the pandemic. AAJ strongly opposes any legislation that would provide the worst corporate actors with immunity—and to do so, we must ensure that protections for businesses are not based on the number of employees or whether a business is deemed essential.

In late April, President Donald Trump issued an executive order compelling meat-processing facilities to remain open despite the fact that many plants were ordered to shut by states and counties due to worker illnesses and deaths caused by the spread of COVID-19. And OSHA has declined to mandate worker protections, issuing voluntary guidance for meat-processing facilities to limit worker exposure to COVID-19 that leaves workers unprotected and without remedies.

The stories of exposure and sickness at nursing homes and meat-processing facilities have made it more difficult for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other corporate interests to push their employer immunity agenda, but they will keep trying. And as pressure mounts to reopen the economy, AAJ will work to stop these immunity proposals from gaining traction.

Reopening the courts. AAJ has been monitoring court closures and working on how to help courts function during these uncertain times and keep cases moving forward. We are exploring a plethora of options that would be helpful at both the federal and state levels—everything from additional funding for state courts to accommodate social distancing and update technology systems to helping the federal courts better respond in times of crisis.

Have an idea or experience to share? Email Federal Affairs Counsel Bonnie Johnston (bonnie.johnston@justice.org) or me (susan.steinman@justice.org).

Susan Steinman is AAJ’s senior director of policy and senior counsel and can be reached at susan.steinman@justice.org. To contact AAJ Public Affairs, email advocacy@justice.org.