Though they are increasingly common as businesses attempt to reopen despite an ongoing—and in some cases worsening—pandemic, COVID-19 liability waivers have a “mixed” record, Goldberg Segalla partner Jonathan S. Ziss told Business Insurance.

The waivers are “a shield, perhaps not an impermeable shield, perhaps not as large a shield as an event host or as an employer might want, but they do provide some measure of defense if for no other reason than they create another hurdle for a plaintiff to clear,” he explained.

How courts will treat COVID-19 liability waivers remains to be determined, but Jonathan noted that they cannot be lightly or easily dismissed.

“I do think they will be a factor in bodily injury litigation and infection-related litigation going forward,” he said.

Business Insurance interviewed Jonathan following the release and wide circulation of a groundbreaking white paper on COVID-19 liability waivers produced by Goldberg Segalla’s COVID-19 Task Force.

Read the article:

• “Firms Shouldn’t Rely on Enforceability of COVID-19 Waivers: Experts,” Business Insurance, June 30, 2020