Tennessee’s Expiring Covid Liability Shield Extended to 2023

Tennessee will extend its Covid-19 liability shield law for another year under legislation Gov. Bill Lee (R) signed Wednesday, joining Idaho and South Carolina in renewing pandemic-related lawsuit limitations that were set to expire.

The Tennessee measure, SB 2448, continues the partial immunity against lawsuits over Covid-19 exposure or illness, broadly protecting businesses, health-care providers, nonprofits, and others such as schools and churches.

• Thirty states enacted similar liability shields in 2020 and 2021. They mostly barred coronavirus-exposure lawsuits unless the person suing proves that their exposure was caused by an entity’s gross negligence or willful misconduct.
• Many state-enacted liability shields were designed as temporary measures and have begun expiring. Ohio’s expired last September, and Georgia’s legislature ended its session in April without extending the shield law that’s set to expire in July. Georgia, like several other states, already extended the shield law once during its 2021 session.
• The Tennessee law was set to expire July 1 this year, but will now last through July 1, 2023. Idaho and South Carolina also enacted extensions of their liability shields this year—Idaho setting its new expiration date as July 1, 2023, and South Carolina setting the date at Dec. 31, 2023.

—With assistance from Jalen Brown