It is an uncertain spring. The number of coronavirus-related complaints filed in federal and state courts across the United States continues to rise at unprecedented rates. Many of these legal actions are testing contemporary legal understandings of negligence, causation, and liability, terms that had previously been defined and adjudicated in contexts of relative normality.
Nobody is certain how judges will handle these cases. This uncertainty is compounded by an ever-shifting legislative landscape, as public policymakers write immunity measures and liability shields into new laws and executive orders. What is clear, however, is that the rulings from this first wave of coronavirus-related cases have the potential to break new legal ground. But will they?
