Anyone can sue anyone else for anything. That doesn’t mean anything will come of it or even reach a courtroom.
There are laws that protect you when you offer help in most if not all states. Get familiar with yours.
You can always stop and call for help.
Don’t do anything you aren’t trained to do, and always ask “can I help?” / get verbal consent if they are conscious.
The danger is just if you have bad judgement. Say you saw a tourniquet on a TV show so you think you know when it’s appropriate to use a tourniquet - or if someone is injured and you decide to move them which makes them MORE injured. (Note: you CAN move them away from a fire or something that would otherwise kill them. “More injuries” is better than dead.)
But you can ALWAYS stop and be kind and call for help and wait with them!
If you act in good faith and aren’t trying to “play doctor” when you aren’t one - no jury is going to punish you for that. If there aren’t good Samaritan laws in your state (there are in most) they might be able to take you to court but they won’t win.
Depends on the country. Eastern countries like China,Russia, and South East Asia, hell ya. They fake like you hit them, they’ll run into you parked and fall over, they’ll fall on corners and you help them up they’ll sue you for hurting them. There’s tons of videos on YouTube, and I lived in China for about 10 years. At first I was like WTF why won’t anyone help that old lady? My friend is like “bro, no” and explained it. Over 10 years I saw it like weekly.
West not as much. It does happen though. There are laws to protect the person helping as well. If it ever went to a trial it’s pretty obvious you pulled up to help and didn’t do anything crazy besides maybe a tourniquet, CPR, and or called 911.
both.
your mom has a skillset that allows her to help.
your sister is useless and can’t help.
make sure you tell her that too.
And when she asked them to voluntarily cover them, they counter offered $800. Talk about a slap in the face
ChatGPT tells me all 50 US states have Good Samaritan laws, but the details vary. However since it didn’t give me the link to verify, that may be just a hallucination
Why even bother posting this?
Is this an attempt at satire, or is this your first day?
It was attempted. The serious point is most places have some variation of a Good Samaritan law, so you shouldn’t be afraid to help. However like others said, the details vary by locale so there is no single answer. I even saw one where medical professionals were mandated to help.
Good Samaritan laws generally protect you if you act in good faith to save someone, although there are still occasional lawsuits.
Then it was an attempt at satire, apparently a poor attempt
Well, then have an upvote from me.
You are talking about a legal issue which means it’s very specific to local laws. Some countries actually have laws that protect those who try to help. Some countries actually have laws that enforce medical professionals to help at the site of an accident. And some countries don’t have that and you can be liable for stuff like that. So it really depends.
Well, they both need to follow local law regarding their duty to provide aid. It varies around the country. They’d likely be protected as long as they didn’t break professional ethics, but it does vary some.
Yeah, it’s like: the world? Render aid. America? Fuck no for lawsuits.
This is an interesting one.
I applaud your mom for helping, she must be prepared at all times? I mean I carry an AFAK (Advanced Individual First Aid Kit) to work or to the range for example. But I would be totally useless in a traffic accident. Like okay, maybe I can tourniquet a limb, put a splint on (high risk), or use a homeostatic bandage and maybe that will get you by until EMS shows up. Really, unless you know exactly what you’re doing, you could kill someone.
And your sister is completely correct. You don’t have to be right to sue someone, odds are it’s a wasted expense on both parties. Anecdotally, when my sister got into a car accident with my car, the stupid cunt my sister had ran into had the gall to try and sue my mom as well as myself. They couldn’t get to me at all, I was 2000 miles away. If only I had my personal attorney that I do today, I would have sued right back.
It depends on what kind of a nurse your sister is. Not all nurses have the same experiences and well it could traumatize them for life. I would trust a combat medic over most nurses. I mean I had a nurse that fucked up an IV 4 times before I told him hey do it like this, I need to be mobile, tape here, tape there. My mom was a head nurse, and when she had surgery it was funny to hear how many times she had to correct the nurses.
Another thing is your mom might have the eye of who’s viable and who’s a casualty. And that’s a hard thing to accept. I mean going home one time, I saw a guy on the road from a motorcycle crash and people trying to help him. He’s screaming in agony, blood is everywhere. No helmet. Think, a peak time parking lot of cars you see in California traffic surrounding the area. I was like, yeah he’s dead, I think I saw it the news actually creepy. At least my brain mostly blocked out that one except the screams.
So yeah, your sister might not want to experience that nor has the confidence to mend a situation like that.
But I would be totally useless in a traffic accident. Like okay, maybe I can tourniquet a limb, put a splint on (high risk), or use a homeostatic bandage and maybe that will get you by until EMS shows up.
don’t underestimate how important it is to be able to evaluate a casualty. your training and skills will stop those ‘oh I’m fine’ 0.o pupils dilated types that want to go home, or knowing what shock looks like, knowing that feeling clammy and sick to one’s stomach might indicate a cardiac event etc., I hope people don’t give up on helping others, stuff like this saves lives.
I know, I help when I can. Part of why I carry an AFAK to work, had a coworker step on a nail. He didn’t notice because he’s diabetic. I noticed bloody shoe prints everywhere, at least the first aid kit had homeostatic powder. He was good enough to go home with a wrap. While he didn’t panic, I know there are plenty of people that would.
. He didn’t notice because he’s diabetic.
ah fuck. the recovery on those kinds of wounds is awful too, takes forever. good catch tho, probably saved his life or his foot
Thanks
both are right, product from their era. People have become more litigious, and your sister grew up with that culture, whereas your mother didn’t
Your mom
BOOM, ROASTED!
I also think there’s a non-zero chance to get into trouble but there’s also a non-zero chance to get hit by lightning soooo…
Ask if they need help. If they say yes, you’re good. *
* this is not legal advice™
It depends on how oblivious your sister is.
She has just seen to many lawsuits from traveling around. Like if you give CPR to an elderly person or something and break a rib you are responsible.
If you’re in the US, good Samaritan law will protect against that situation. They could try and sue, but it will on all likelihood be thrown out.
Its a convenient excuse. I know that’s easy for me to say, not being the person to face the small chance of liability. I just don’t know how someone trained can walk past and be like not my problem. Seems so fucking cold
Sorry for being curt.
Nice to meet you Curt, my name is dad.
Hi daddy
