Should a Good Samaritan Be Sued?

[Zybanthia]

Originally Posted by devonin

Last I heard, you can be sued if you see someone in need of assistance and -don't- offer help.

I thought something like this was in place as well.

But anyway, this lawsuit will almost certainly NOT fly with a judge. The Good Samaritan law protects those who decide to help out. Granted, it differs from place to place, and I'm not quite sure of how it works here, but I doubt this lawsuit will make it anywhere.

EDIT: Fudge, this happened in California. In California, Good Samaritan laws are restricted to emergency medical care.

[wienerschmidtzel]

This is why you don't help anyone.

"Sorry, you're being burned alive grandma, I just don't want to risk being sued."

If she's really that unhappy with the outcome why doesn't she just give herself 3rd degree burns all over her body?

[devonin]

In Canada, a case like this would almost certainly be thrown out if the prosecution couldn't prove outright malicious intent. And to do that, they'd have to basically prove that he WAS an expert in emergency medical treatment in car accidents, because that's the only way he could know that it was maliciously harmful to move her, which defeats the whole claimo fthe case anyway, being that he should have waited for experts to arrive on the scene.

But then, the US legal system is based around the idea that absolutely anybody can bring absolutely any case before a judge and have it heard. There was that guy, I forget his name now I want to think he was a senator somewhere in the southwest, who recently sued God for the sole purpose of showing how important it was to protect everyone's legal right to appealing to the justice system.

There's a great stipulation in the Canadian legal system that I think every nation should adopt and that would severely impact the number of frankly ridiculous lawsuits in the United states, namely: If I sue you, and you win, I'm on the hook for my legal costs, your legal costs, and potentially an additional fine for wasting the time of the court.

[Professor Raine]

Just goes to show how much the American way is messed up.

I mean, it has it's good parts, but the way people act when it comes to lawsuits is just sick.

[Nyokou]

Something similar happened to one of my friends this past summer. He got sued for sexual offense by one of his "friends" about a month before graduating just because the bitch needed money to pay for college expenses. And she won.

It's really sad just how despicable people are.

[stretchypanda]

Originally Posted by Zybanthia

But anyway, this lawsuit will almost certainly NOT fly with a judge. The Good Samaritan law protects those who decide to help out. Granted, it differs from place to place, and I'm not quite sure of how it works here, but I doubt this lawsuit will make it anywhere.

This. Even in a state with loose Good Samaritan Laws, this shouldn't hold up. It is unfortunate that someone can't just appreciate the good fortune they've had and instead have to focus on the negative outcome of an event.