Although the COVID-19 emergency has ended, the pandemic’s harmful effect on the mental health of American youth is ongoing. A recent national survey of high school students by the CDC demonstrates that the mental health of adolescents in America is worsening at startling rates. Specifically, in 2021, 42% of students felt persistently sad or hopeless, and another 29% reported poor mental health.
Back in June, in a post about the first (as far as I know) case in which healthcare workers challenged a COVID-19 vaccination requirement, I wrote, “This could be the first of many cases in which employees object to their employer’s COVID-19 vaccination requirement – we’ll have to wait and see.” https://www.videntpartners.com/blog/2021/federal-judge-dismisses-lawsuit-houston-methodist-hospital-employees-who-refused-covid-19. Well, it was indeed th
This could be the first of many cases in which employees object to their employer’s COVID-19 vaccination requirement – we’ll have to wait and see. In Bridges v. Houston Methodist Hospital (S.D.
The novel coronavirus has profoundly altered the legal landscape over the past 12 months. Courts have been forced to change their operating procedures, restrict access, amend scheduling orders (often more than once), postpone trials, and conduct almost all hearings and other routine court business via Zoom. For example, “Since the start of the pandemic, Texas courts have held more than 1 million virtual hearings, leaving [judges] often in charge of guiding others through technical difficulties.”
Like all of us, I have experienced bad times for our country over the course of my life. I can recall years of fear and misery. I can recall decades of chaos, drugs and war. I’ve lived through violence and plague. And the overwhelming fear of nuclear holocaust shadowed the world for such a very a long time that it hardly seems credible from today’s perspective.
It’s been just two months (though it seems much longer in this era of what I call “COVID-induced time dilation”) since we first wrote about existing and anticipated litigation arising out of the COVID-19 pandemic, https://www.videntpartners.com/blog/2020/unintended-consequences. At that time, employees had filed 588 lawsuits (69 of which were class actions) against employers alleging labor and employment violations (retaliation, wrongful termination, discrimination, failure to accommodate, etc.) related to the c
As we all know, the COVID-19 pandemic is wreaking havoc on the health, economies, and even political stability of nations, cities and towns across the globe. In America, it is also causing a growing wave of litigation that will likely go on longer than the pandemic itself. Lawsuits will emerge from virtually every corner of our society and will involve a wide range of businesses, many state and local governments, and a broad cross section of our population. Governments will endeavor to protect businesses (see
Jeff Catalano, a longtime client of ours, is one of Massachusetts’s leading medical malpractice / products liability / personal injury attorneys. He recently wrote this article for his firm’s occasional email newsletter, and he has graciously consented to our request to reprint it here.
One Important Immunity Achieved: Healthcare Providers from Lawsuits
By Jeffrey N. Catalano
This recently-filed sexual assault case resonates, for three reasons: the event occurred on an airplane, which, while not unheard-of and certainly underreported, is relatively rare (see https://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/crime/article238558198.html); it involves a reversal of the usual gender roles; and it’s an early glimpse of the approaching wave of coronavirus-related litigation:
Yes, Vident Partners is still open for business and actually functioning quite well.
