When someone witnesses an auto accident, you are what Texas law considers a “Good Samaritan,” stemming from a parable of Christ in Luke 10:33 of the New Testament about a man who helps a stranger in distress. These persons are generally exempt from lawsuits by the injury victim via Texas law. You may be able to sue that person within the bounds of Texas’ Good Samaritan law, if you were the car crash injury victim and a so-called Good Samaritan injured you while lending aid, however. Those who try to help an injured person at an emergency scene is generally protected under this law. A victim gets out of a vehicle after a fire breaks out from a crashed vehicle and offers medical aid at the scene .. a good Samaritan may try to help. Depending on this law dictates the extent of their liability in an injury lawsuit. Today, we at Lastimado Texas would like to continue to elaborate on the Good Samaritan Law.
How to Interpret the Good Samaritan Law
After an accident or emergency, each state has its own laws about Good Samaritans and their liability. Fortunately, the experts of Lastimado Texas understands this law. When they intervene after a car wreck or other accident by providing immediate medical assistance at the scene, they know that Texas law tends to protect Good Samaritans from claims of negligence. For an act performed during the emergency unless the act is willfully or wantonly negligent, a person who in good faith administers emergency care at the scene of an emergency or in a hospital is not liable in civil damages is held under the Texas Good Samaritan Act. That person cannot be sued unless they are clearly negligent if an individual provides help in an emergency situation. By protecting them from liability, Texas’ law for Good Samaritans is thus designed to encourage people to help in an emergency.
Are there Exceptions to the Good Samaritan Law in Texas?
There are exceptions to the Texas Good Samaritan law, as with many laws, which has been revised many times since it was first written. Good Samaritans who offer aid in an emergency are not exempt from liability if any of the following applies:
1) Remuneration or payment is expected for their help.
2) Business or offer a service are solicited at the emergency scene.
3) Being someone who normally provides emergency care, like a nurse or emergency room worker.
4) They are admitting / treating physician associated with the physician of the victim making a medical care liability claim.
5) For causing the injury in the first place, they are the person responsible like a bad driver who then offers emergency aid to a crash victim.
Medical professionals or persons seeking compensation or payment for aid they render in an emergency are such exceptions to Texas’ Good Samaritan law in general. You may be protected by the Texas Good Samaritan law and be exempt from liability if you are not such a person but rather an individual citizen offering help out of compassion. When someone needs immediate assistance in an emergency situation, the Texas Good Samaritan Act thus protects persons who simply provide help out of their own generosity.
What Else Do Good Samaritan Laws Protect?
1) Acting in good faith to help at an emergency, protections for unlicensed medical personnel who are not certified or licensed in the healing arts.
2) In an emergency to check a victim’s heart rhythm, protections for persons who use a portable automated external defibrillator, then give the heart an electric shock to restore normal rhythm in a life-threatening situation such as cardiac arrest.
Personal Injury Attorneys in Dallas, TX (Just Minutes from Carrollton, Richardson, Farmers Branch, Garland, Irving, Mesquite, Grand Prairie, Duncanville, Hutchins & DeSoto, Texas
If you have a personal injury case and are wondering about the effects of Texas’ Good Samaritan laws, it’s important to speak with a qualified injury attorney. Lastimado Texas can evaluate your case to determine how our state’s Good Samaritan Law might impact you, and how you can build your case to respond to the other side’s arguments. Call us for a consultation today.
