Dealing with the coronavirus pandemic

The effect of the coronavirus pandemic will be felt by businesses and individuals for months and possibly years to come. Otherwise healthy businesses will have collapsed, and productive employees will have lost their jobs.

In some cases, this will have been unavoidable, particularly where the businesses in question were teetering on the edge of solvency before coronavirus spread. In other cases, however, some employers may look to take advantage of the opportunity to shed staff, or they may properly need to do so (even if for only a few weeks or months, as some airlines have done).

Commercially, there will be examples of businesses and individuals looking to use the pandemic as an excuse, and sometimes a valid reason, as to why certain contracts should be disregarded, made void or amended. This will affect businesses and individuals alike.

The best companies will wish to put in place peerless disaster recovery procedures, to smooth and capitalise upon the economy’s recovery later in the year.

Griffin Law can help:

• We can help your business handle home working, temporary lay-offs and redundancy consultations, or act for individuals affected by the economic downturn caused, or claimed to have been caused, by the coronavirus pandemic.

• We can advise businesses about contractual terms, including force majeure clauses, that they might properly be able to use because of the pandemic, or that they might have used improperly against them by unethical counterparties to contracts.

• We can help businesses whose insurers refuse to pay out when claims are made (e.g. business interruption insurance) or where their brokers failed to advise them to incept adequate insurance policies.

• Our Chairman, Professor Andrew MacLeod, coordinated the relief effort after the Pakistan earthquake in 2005 in his role as Chief of Operations of the United Nations Emergency Coordination Centre. Consultancy services and legal advice can be provided to businesses in a way that leverage off his unparalleled expertise.

To learn how Griffin Law can help you as a business or individual if you are (or think you might be) affected by the coronavirus pandemic, please contact Donal Blaney at justice@griffin.law or on 01732 525923.