A look at the litigation in Covid-19 medical cases: Foreign case law

Abstract

This article provides a look at court cases with a medical background that emerged as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. The majority of cases were started or finished as civil lawsuits. The cases are unique and they testify of disputes founded on different bases and forms of damages. They come from foreign case law, primarily from the US and European countries. The cases are different from one another and they usually concern access to healthcare, preventive measures, testing, emergency, and other conditions related to the work of specialist services, etc. The crisis that has arisen certainly cannot change the existing legal standards and other rules related to the responsibility of healthcare institutions and their employees. The crisis does not have that power, but it does bring certain specificities stemming from diverse situations. This is evidenced by the examples from the most recent case law. In order to ensure whether physicians and other medical staff have committed an error, the court must take into account the concrete working conditions of each of them in the context of the pandemic. Healthcare professionals are facing unusual risks related to the tasks they are being assigned. The existing legal regime of responsibility in healthcare provides some answers, but it is not certain that all the situations that have arisen from the healthcare crisis can be analyzed in the same way, especially due to the crisis situation and the dangers in which medical staff had to act.