Alaska Workers Compensation law and Covid 19 – Employers need not liability protection if they have Workers Compensation insurance coverage as required by law

The Anchorage Daily News published a commentary by Win Gruening entitled Liability Protection is Necessary for Alaska Businesses. This commentary is based on two false premise; 1) that employees can sue employers and 2) that businesses can be held liable for customers infection with Covid 19 in the absence of negligence. These premise are simple false. 

Nonnegligent Alaska businesses are already protected from liability arising from COVID-19, and further legislation is unnecessary. And, businesses which are negligent need to be held accountable and should not be protected by specialized legislation. 

All businesses are required by law to have Worker’s Compensation Insurance to protect their employees. Workers injured on the job, whether by COVID-19 or a slip and fall or even an employer’s negligence are covered by workers comp insurance. Those workers, even if injured by the gross negligence of their employer, cannot sue the employer. This legal principle has been enshrined in law for decades.  

Next, it was argued that businesses need to be protected from frivolous lawsuit brought by a customer against a business who engaged in no wrongdoing. In fact, customers can bring suit against a negligent business which causes them to been infected by COVID 19 but only if they can  prove they were infected at the business and because of the business owners negligence, will they be able to recover damages. If the business owner has followed government guidelines for protecting the public from the coronavirus, they have nothing to worry about; they have not acted in a negative manner. Proving the contraction of  COVID 19 occurred at a specific location is likely to be very difficult.

As far as frivolous lawsuits go, contrary to public opinion, there are very few frivolous lawsuits. Because lawyers cannot get paid if they do not recover for their clients, they do not file lawsuits which are meritless. In short, frivolous lawsuits do not make money for lawyers.  Lawyers, like everyone else, do not like to work for nothing.

So, there is no need to waste time or effort with additional laws which are totally unnecessary.