Rank-and-file folks seem to think small businesses are protected from liability amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the owner of a popular eatery in Orlando said during a recent Florida Record interview.
That just isn't so, Thomas Ward, owner of Pig Floyd’s Urban Barbakoa on North Mills Avenue said during a Florida Record telephone interview.
"It's obvious that people think that we're a business, so we're taking that risk and that the insurance companies on the other side don't want to take responsibility," he said. "So the insurance companies are the ones who are sitting pretty and they're probably going to come up with some sort of protection on this, so they can charge an additional amount."
Ward said his "biggest concern" is that he's not protected, as a small business, against any claim by one of his patrons that they contracted coronavirus at his restaurant – a claim Ward said is almost inevitable.
"By the time you get to court and fight it and everything, the lawyers for the insurance companies just say 'settle,'" Ward said. "Well, we don't have settlement dollars, not right now at least. That's where I come from and I know there's stuff going on down in Miami already."
Many small businesses are banking "that it's so hard to prove" where any individual contracted coronavirus and that the courts "might see it that way," Ward said.
"But who knows right now?" Ward said. "I don't know how the courts are reacting even to people who are not businesses who can't pay their rent. It's just a challenge to know what's going on in the courts right now."
Ward's comments to the Florida Record came after his op-ed piece in the Orlando Sentinel published Sept. 12, calling for liability protections for small businesses amid the ongoing pandemic.
"With COVID-19, I feel helpless and worry about the uncertainty," Ward said in the op-ed piece. "People can be exposed and contract the virus practically anywhere. If I get sued over COVID-19, it will be hard to defend myself against a customer or employee who claims they contracted the disease at my restaurant. I’m convinced it's just a matter of time before I get presented with a lawsuit."
Despite the clear and obvious need for COVID-19 tort reform, Ward told the Florida Record that most colleagues in the industry don't believe there will be any help from the federal government anytime soon.
"I think everybody is waiting for this election, they're [Congress] not going to make a vote," Ward said.
Ward added that he shares much of that opinion.
"I don't think the federal government is going to make any change, so now we've got to talk about what is our local government going to do," he said.