Food For Thought

Major events such as World War’s, 9/11 and pandemics alter society’s behavior, attitudes, and social norms. With Covid-19 being a major world event, how will this alter society in America? Specifically, our legal system.

There are some obvious concerns when this is over. Will citizens fail to respond to jury duty because of healthcare fears? Will social distancing force the Court to alter the Jury selection process?

What about attitudes in medical malpractice cases? The media coverage of the healthcare workers treating Covid-19 has hailed them “heroes” and “being on the front line” in comparison to soldiers in battle. What effect will that have on judges or jurors’ attitudes toward defendant healthcare workers?

Will this virus make it difficult to bring a medical malpractice suit to trial? Will judges grant more summary judgements for defendants of medical malpractice cases? After all judges are people too, and as people, are subject to having attitudes conditioned by major life events.

If a medical malpractice case does make it to a jury trial, will the jury be willing to consider that facts or has Covid-19 formed inherent bias in our society which will hinder a true and legitimate medical malpractice claim from being fairly tried?

Of course, our courts will have to reopen fully to find what impact this will have. It will be interesting to observe the impact in our legal system as we exit this pandemic.

I will admit, I have a lot of respect for these frontline healthcare workers. I am thankful for their courage, commitment, and compassion.