Many of the claims are related to prisoners wanting to be released due to the pandemic.
A lawsuit tracker has revealed nearly 800 cases filed over COVID-19 in the US, reported the American Bar Association Journal.
Called the COVID-19 Complaint Tracker, it was developed by Hunton Andrews Kurth in collaboration with a data services provider. The tracker compiles federal and state cases filed across several states, detailing the number of complaints and their nature.
As of 4 May, 795 suits have been filed in relation to the coronavirus pandemic. Over 230 of these are related to prison conditions in this period, almost 140 are about insurance and more than 60 are connected to civil rights. In New York alone, nearly 270 suits have been listed by the complaint tracker.
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Many of the prison suits involve inmates looking to secure a release from detention facilities in this period. Nonetheless, these cases are beginning to level out.
On the rise are claims related to employment salary and termination, contract disputes, wrongful death and force majeure clauses.
The Washington Post also reported that complaints have been filed against airlines, cruise lines, fitness chains like yoga studios, hospitals, nursing homes and the entertainment sector. These complaints include nurse’s unions protesting the lack of PPE provisions to healthcare workers in New York and Alaska, as well as a class action against the health department of Pennsylvania for not monitoring senior-living facilities properly. Ticketmaster was also the subject of a number of class-action suits due to its refusal to provide refunds for cancelled events.
Nonetheless, the American Health Care Association has successfully secured legal protection for nursing homes and long-term care facilities in several states, including New York.
Hunter Andrews Kurth attorney Torsten Kracht told Washington Post that they have started looking into legal precedents connected to previous outbreaks, such polio and cholera.
“It would be fair to say that it’s testing some areas of law that haven’t gotten a lot of attention in, in many cases, decades,” Kracht said.
Kracht acknowledged that the COVID-19 Complaint Tracker doesn’t cover all cases filed.