so much for the good samaritan law

ohskigod

yep, leave it to California.


you know the laws that protect regular folk from being sued by some scumbag attorney for helping someone? yep, this court pretty much flushed them down the toilet.

I'm probably not going to be too willing to help someone because of this, even though I;m not in Cali

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-good-samaritan19-2008dec19,0,4033454.story

ben62670

It should be Lametimes.com

goingganzo

i have cpr for the profesonal rescuer and now i am not stoping and helpong anyone.!! to be sued for helping a person in need is crazy

BottomFeeder

Sheesh. That's just flat out a a tough case! When I read it, it's a judgment call as to whether or not the "rescuer" should have tried so desperately to "yank" her friend out of the car. The article makes me wonder if it really was a true emergency.

& There's the notion of a "friend" suing a friend! Man, this is one truly complicated suit.

Yuk!

comfortablycurt

It's the lawsuits like this that make me start to lose faith in humanity. People suing people for helping each other...that's ridiculous. People are to centered on money, and trying to get it in any way that they can. That's not what life's about. The fact that the two people are friends makes it even more ridiculous...

ben62670

I'd still stop to help, but if they sue me(really a rarity) they will wish they died in the accident. One of the funny lawsuits is that in some states if a bugler gets hurt in your house while robbing you he can sue you. If you injure someone who is endangering your life they can sue you(this means don't touch them or finish the job to me).

In general.
Lawyers are lier's
Judges are X lawyers.
Who makes the laws? X Judges. The guys that started out as lawyers;)
More frivolous lawsuits equals more lawyers getting paid:mad:

ohskigod

BottomFeeder wrote: »

Sheesh. That's just flat out a a tough case! When I read it, it's a judgment call as to whether or not the "rescuer" should have tried so desperately to "yank" her friend out of the car. The article makes me wonder if it really was a true emergency. !

I have put some thought to this, I was an EMT some years ago (mostly volunteer) and thus still possess some requisite skill in helping someone.

the case in point is, good samaritan laws exist to protect people who try to help in extenuating circumstances and have no fear being sued. its a touchy suject. you can try to save someone in a fire, carry them out, but whoops, you dropped them.......good sam laws should shield you from being sued. you shouldnt be punished for trying to help someone but failing. if this were the case, you would have people needing help and people just walking by, not even calling the cops for fear of even being identified for a lawsuit.

In this case, a car whacked a pole at 45mph (certainly an adequate mechanism of injury to cause paralyses in and of itself) When a car whacks a pole head on, chances are the radiator is going to crack, and smoke. this, to the untrained eye looks like fire (or at least burning)

A completly untrained person pulls up, sees "fire" thinks the car is going to blow and pulls her friend out....possibly exascerbating a spinal injury to the point of paralyses (if she already wasnt paralysed, though note there had to at least be an injury from an accident, as an uninjured spine is not going to snap and whatnot solely from being pulled from a car)

The rescuer had no way of knowing the car really want on fire, she was reacting to what she percieved is a real threat and acted to the best of her knowlege (I assume, nothing screaming out that she didnt) Should she be sued for making the wrong choice, when all she had to do ws nothing to be sued?

realize how different our society will be if this is the case. people are already cold and callous to each other. the Good Sam laws are the only thing left giving people some shred of a reason to help there fellow man. there will be cases where someone does something wrong and something bad can happen (this might very well be a case), but punching a hole in this protection, thus making no one want to help anyone, will be really bad.

kep in mind no one will even call the cops for a problem, because if you ge identified as the caller, you can be scrutinized as to how you handled the situation (or lack of action) by a slick attorney and be sued. keep in mind its not about losing a lawsuit, its just about being in one, they are a) scary and b) expensive as hell sine you have to hire an atorney and getting fees back in a case where you are the defendent is REALLY hard.

guys, trust me on this, what hapenned to the paralyzed lady being factored in, you do not want this chick winning the case

Face

I hope that judge has someone stand over him and watch as he burns to death in a car wreck.

obieone

Face wrote: »

I hope that judge has someone stand over him and watch as he burns to death in a car wreck.

I was gonna say almost the same thing, only have the plaintiffs attorney, trapped in a burning car, and have the defendent stand there & watch:D

Q: What do you call 500K lawyers at the bottom of the ocean?

ohskigod

obieone wrote: »

I was gonna say almost the same thing, only have the plaintiffs attorney, trapped in a burning car, and have the defendent stand there & watch:D

Q: What do you call 500K lawyers at the bottom of the ocean?

you know, while there are many lawyers I dont like, there are many that I do.

Lawyers deal wth and argue, our state and federal legislature could easily make better laws based on actual logic and common sense, but for political reasons, they dont. I blame the government more than just the lawyers

agfrost

A: A good start?

comfortablycurt

obieone wrote: »

Q: What do you call 500K lawyers at the bottom of the ocean?

A: Peace on earth?

IDK...just going out on a limb.

There was a case somewhere not to far from me earlier this year, where a guy was watching his friends house while the friend was in the hospital. In the middle of the night, some kids ended up breaking into the house, thinking that it was empty. Apparently they knew the guy who lived there, because they went right to where his money was hidden, and they also grabbed a bunch of the guys guns.

His friend was in the bedroom sleeping, and heard something going on out in the hallway. He goes to investigate, and he see's these kids, all of whom are carrying guns now at this point. He also has a gun, and on seeing all of these people who also had guns, he opened fire. He ended up killing one of the kids.

It was dark, he couldn't really see what was going on, and actually the guns that the kids had weren't even loaded. But when it's dark in the middle of the night and you see someone pointing a gun at you, what's your reaction gonna be?

Anyway, the guy ended up having to go to court, with the possibility of being charged with murder.

I'm not sure how the case ended up, I'll see if I can find it later on.

ohskigod

comfortablycurt wrote: »

A: Peace on earth?

IDK...just going out on a limb.

There was a case somewhere not to far from me earlier this year, where a guy was watching his friends house while the friend was in the hospital. In the middle of the night, some kids ended up breaking into the house, thinking that it was empty. Apparently they knew the guy who lived there, because they went right to where his money was hidden, and they also grabbed a bunch of the guys guns.

His friend was in the bedroom sleeping, and heard something going on out in the hallway. He goes to investigate, and he see's these kids, all of whom are carrying guns now at this point. He also has a gun, and on seeing all of these people who also had guns, he opened fire. He ended up killing one of the kids.

It was dark, he couldn't really see what was going on, and actually the guns that the kids had weren't even loaded. But when it's dark in the middle of the night and you see someone pointing a gun at you, what's your reaction gonna be?

Anyway, the guy ended up having to go to court, with the possibility of being charged with murder.

I'm not sure how the case ended up, I'll see if I can find it later on.

In Illinois? I'm not surprised. would love to know the name of the case if you got it.
although, note this is unrelated to the good sam laws, thats just straight up self defense laws there, which in illinois seems to have issues. A certain person from Illinois who had a nice election night has some self defense views/voting history in Illinois that I am not happy about, but I digress.

ben62670

ohskigod wrote: »

you know, while there are many lawyers I dont like, there are many that I do.

Lawyers deal wth and argue, our state and federal legislature could easily make better laws based on actual logic and common sense, but for political reasons, they dont. I blame the government more than just the lawyers

The government that makes up the laws is X lawyers;) Yes I am aware there are many good lawyers, but a large percentage cares more about there pockets than helping people.
Ben

markmarc

Once again California leads the way in stupid judges. I feel for the paralyzed woman I really do, but you cannot legislate against human instinct when it involves helping another human being.

States and the Congress can pass specific upgrades to the Good Samaritan laws on the books to further protect those who help.

ND13

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