Avoiding COVID-19 Lawsuits

Automotive attorneys Fisher and Phillips have put together the following Legal Alert regarding how to avoid wrongful death and injury claims for workplace COVID-19 exposure. You may be exposed to wrongful death or personal injury lawsuits as employees are influenced by trial lawyers to seek quicker and more lucrative recoveries.

Worker’s compensation is the normal route employees will follow if they are exposed to COVID-19 at work. This is statutory coverage and the damages recovered are capped by statute.  Follow these guidelines to avoid these situations as much as possible.

COVID-19 Scams on the Rise

Across the world, there are many people trying to take advantage of the chaos created by the COVID-19 Pandemic. Scammers are being more covert than ever. Please remind your employees to make sure that  all phone calls, invoices, e-mail requests and any other outside vendor inquiries are examined thoroughly for legitimacy. 

Now is the time to be extremely diligent and cautious in protecting your dealership's operating cash and revenue.  Do not visit a website or pay an invoice with anyone you do not recognize. Do not offer any business or financial information to any source with whom you aren't already established.

As always, please let FADA know if any scams or criminal activity are attempted at your dealerships.
IRS Helps Businesses Who Are Affected by COVID-19

The IRS has established a  special section on IRS.gov  focused on steps to help individuals, businesses and other taxpayers affected by the Coronavirus. This page is being continually updated as new information is available.

You can find special informational graphics about the upcoming economic impact payments that can be shared with your employees. These include details about who qualifies for the $1,200 payments. Graphics can be found at  IRS.gov/coronavirus .

The IRS warns to watch out for schemes tied to economic impact payments including an increase of calls and email phishing attempts. Watch for scammers who may:

  • Emphasize the words “Stimulus Check” or “Stimulus Payment.” The official term is economic impact payment.

  • Ask the taxpayer to sign over their economic impact payment check to them.

  • Ask by phone, email, text or social media for verification of personal and/or banking information saying that the information is needed to receive or speed up their economic impact payment.
VI Licenses Must Renew by April 30, 2020

As a reminder, if you hold a VI license, you must renew by the end of month. CLICK HERE for more information.
RESOURCES

Click on the image (right) to visit our COVID-19 resource page on our website.

As always, please send all questions and concerns to FADA here .
April 15, 2020 | 3:00pm EST