Most people have an idea of what a “Good Samaritan” is, even if they have never come across the Biblical reference which was the origin of the term. In a non-legal sense, a Good Samaritan is generally recognized as someone who does someone a good turn even when they don’t know them. A typical example would be when someone witnesses a car accident and promptly goes to help whoever was injured. Most acts of genuine selflessness like this are welcomed by the person or people who are helped. Some Good Samaritan incidents involve extreme bravery on the part of the helper and this can lead to the Good Samaritans being recognized for their good deed by wider society. However, not everyone chooses to be a Good Samaritan when confronted with an opportunity to render assistance. Why?
Is being a Good Samaritan going out of favor?
The original parable about the Good Samaritan referred to a man from the Middle Eastern Samaritan community helping an injured man he met on the street, who had been robbed and beaten. This was despite otherwise worthy citizens walking past the beaten man without bothering to stop and help. Good Samaritan laws have been enacted in many U.S. states, including Massachusetts, to help persuade people not to stand on the sidelines and avoid helping someone who was injured or in danger in an emergency. Until these laws were created, there had been a steady reduction in genuine Good Samaritan acts, with many people worried about the possibility of being sued by victims or their families if an act of kindness went badly wrong.
For example, imagine witnessing a car accident and going to help someone obviously injured in the car. You help the person out of the car and lie them down on the ground away from the crash site. Unfortunately, despite your good intentions, your actions actually made things worse and the person you helped became paralyzed as a result. Could you be sued in a personal injury claim against you? Fear of doing the wrong thing and being at the receiving end of a lawsuit could very easily prevent someone from even trying to help in a genuine emergency, perhaps like the two passers-by referred to in the Biblical parable.
Reluctance to step in and help in an emergency is thought to have become more prevalent at the same time as the rise in the use of personal injury claims in lawsuits alleging negligence. This is where Massachusetts and other states have passed Good Samaritan laws to protect those who help others in an emergency situation from being sued.
Massachusetts Good Samaritan laws
The first Good Samaritan law in this state was signed into existence in 2012. The law was specifically designed to persuade people to ring 911 if they witnessed someone overdosing on any controlled substance or were themselves the victims of an overdose. The law gave protection to people from being charged with possession if they had rang for assistance. The worrying rise in opiate addiction and abuse was the major reason for this law being enacted.
Good Samaritan laws were considerably expanded in later years to include protection for first responders and off-duty medical professionals and engineers who gave medical or other help to people who were injured in an emergency situation. The laws helped to prevent those rendering assistance from negligence claims later on if the acts of assistance led to unforeseen worse injuries.
The most up to date state Good Samaritan law G.L. c. 112 section 12V extends this basic protection from being sued after helping in an emergency to any bystander. The law states that “[a]ny person who, in good faith, attempts to render emergency care . . . and does so without compensation, shall not be liable for acts or omissions, other than gross negligence or willful or wanton misconduct, resulting from the attempt to render such emergency care.”
So can a modern Good Samaritan in Massachusetts still be sued?
Good Samaritan laws do not completely remove the possibility of being sued in a personal injury claim if things go wrong, but the burden of proof that negligence occurred is much higher. Basically, the law protects someone rendering assistance in an emergency from being sued as long as:
- you gave assistance in an emergency purely voluntarily;
- the person(s) you went to help did not object to being helped by you;
- you provided help as carefully as possible and were not negligent in your actions;
- you rendered assistance with no ulterior motives (e.g. for financial benefit).
The state’s Good Samaritan laws do not expressly stop someone from filing a personal injury claim against you if the person you went to help suffered as a result of your help, but they must have evidence that you did so negligently, i.e. they can provide clear proof that one or more of the descriptors above applied to you when you gave assistance.
A duty to aid in an emergency
Massachusetts Good Samaritan laws have also been extended with legislation which does more than just persuade people to provide assistance when in an emergency situation. If you do stand by and watch someone who has been injured in an accident or who was a victim of an assault without providing any help, you could then be sued for not providing whatever help you might have been able to provide at the time. Witnessing a nearby emergency without doing something to help might be regarded as negligence and you could face a negligence lawsuit by the victims of the incident you witnessed or their families.
Obviously, every situation is unique and the question of whether you acted negligently, either because you genuinely tried to help but made things worse or stood by without helping when you might have been able to help is very nuanced. In the latter case, it would be a reason not to render assistance at an emergency if you genuinely believed that it would have put you or others in danger or you genuinely did not have the expertise to deal with whatever the emergency involved.
If you have been involved in an emergency anywhere in Massachusetts and are worried about the repercussions because of allegations you were negligent one way or another, you should talk to a Boston personal injury attorney about your legal options.