Law Question for Law Students (1 Viewer)

[deyveed]

Greetings future lawyers

You know how the Good Samaritan Act allows volunteer First Aiders to treat people and not get sued if they stuff up but it doesn't apply to those who are getting paid for their health services e.g. Doctor. Well lets say i'm being paid as the first aid guy in the workplace and while i'm off work i see an unconscious person on the floor. Will i be able to perform first aid on the person and not get sued?
I think theres another law that says if you are a certified first aider and just walk past a person requiring first aid you can be sued for not helping them. If thats the case, does that mean i can be sued for not helping and stuffing up if i help?

 

[Lazarus]

Erhm... Australia has a Good Samaritan Act? The Year 2000 Information Disclosure Act is sometimes referred to as the Good Samaritan Act... but that has nothing to do with what you're talking about.

As far as I know, volunteer workers are just as liable to be sued as everyone else...

If you see someone drowning, you're under no obligation to rescue them, regardless of your qualifications and training (unless perhaps you're being employed as a lifeguard). You can't be held liable for an omission. But, if you do attempt to save them, and you botch it, you're liable...

...been watching too much Seinfeld?

 

[MiuMiu]

yeah this sounds kinda American.

I asked my dad and he just looked at me weird.

 

[Lazarus]

Mmm something came up in my torts readings today - did you mean the Civil Liability Act? Because it actually has a section providing immunities for 'good samaritans'. The Act was only introducted recently, in 2002. There's a similar section on volunteers, but I thought the good samaritan one more interesting.

<hr>56 Who is a good samaritan

For the purposes of this Part, a "good samaritan" is a person who, in good faith and without expectation of payment or other reward, comes to the assistance of a person who is apparently injured or at risk of being injured.

57 Protection of good samaritans

(1) A good samaritan does not incur any personal civil liability in respect of any act or omission done or made by the good samaritan in an emergency when assisting a person who is apparently injured or at risk of being injured.

(2) This section does not affect the vicarious liability of any other person for the acts or omissions of the good samaritan.

...

58 Exclusion from protection

...

(2) The protection from personal liability conferred by this Part in respect of an act or omission does not apply if:

(a) ...

(b) the good samaritan failed to exercise reasonable care and skill in connection with the act or omission.
<hr>
It doesn't actually provide that much protection, because of the last exclusion I've included above. The courts haven't really taken notice of the Act yet either.

There's also another section that relates to your query -

<hr>5O Standard of care for professionals

(1) A person practising a profession ( "a professional" ) does not incur a liability in negligence arising from the provision of a professional service if it is established that the professional acted in a manner that (at the time the service was provided) was widely accepted in Australia by peer professional opinion as competent professional practice.<hr>
Even with all of that, you still can't be sued for not helping someone.

http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/nsw/consol_act/cla2002161/

 

[deyveed]

Thanks for the replies

My first aid instructor said that if i were to help someone for example move an unconscious person off the middle of the road and by doing that i severed their spinal cord, i couldn't get sued or the case will just be dismissed because i was trying to be a good samaritan. She said the same thing applies if i was performing CPR and i cracked a few ribs in the process.

 

[Lazarus]

It's actually fairly likely that the person would argue that you weren't exercising "reasonable care and skill in connection with the act"... and they'd probably win.

Just be careful.

 

[deyveed]

Crap

I think i'll need that insurance thing now.
The instructor said that no one has been successfully sued for performing first aid in Australia yet. Anyone know if this is true?

 

[Lazarus]

From what I can see, there haven't been any successful Australian cases... though I'm not 100% sure on that. There have certainly been English cases (which are very persuasive).

These sites might be of interest -

http://www.parasolemt.com.au/Manual/legalissues.asp

http://www.sjaa.com.au/assoc/

http://www.cpr2000.qas.qld.gov.au/faq/faq_04.html

More can be found via google (I used ["first aid" sued] and Australian webpages only).

 

[Lazarus]

There would have undoubtedly been some of those - you can use www.austlii.edu.au to research Australian cases, deyveed.