Governor John Bel Edwards signed a new bill into law yesterday that protects restaurants in Louisiana from COVID-19 lawsuits.

It seems like everybody is looking for a quick payday these days, especially here in Louisiana. You know the vultures are circling over restaurants, hoping to contract the coronavirus so they can sue the pants off of a business.

The bill was proposed by State Sen. Patrick McMath (R-Covington), and it states that residents cannot file a lawsuit against a restaurant and accuse them of giving them COVID-19, either through food preparation or from the serving of the food.

Drive-thru, dine-in, takeout and delivery food services are all covered in the new law. It retroactively protects Louisiana restaurants back to March 11th and going forward until Governor Edwards officially ends the state's public health emergency.

When the new bill was proposed, it was widely supported by state lawmakers as a way to protect the already hurting food industry from the pandemic.

This legislation does offer exceptions that will be determined in a court of law. A judge will have the burden of deciding if the contraction of COVID-19 was an event of negligence on the part of the food service establishment in order to bring it to trial.

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