# Do "Good Samaritans" Still Get Sued? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 2, 2004, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-good-samaritans-still-get-sued/257947 "2004-08-02T10:55:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2004, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-good-samaritans-still-get-sued/257947/21 "2004-08-04T01:36:36Z")
**alaric** Are you defending the practice of Attorney Advertisements? (I find that unusual considering you said Sokolve carries a phony “fork lift driver for Home Depot” wallet, so people would be willing to save his life). Do you live in the USA? Just wondering. ---
**Author:** ![alaricthegoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4bbf92/32.png) [@alaricthegoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alaricthegoth)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2004, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-good-samaritans-still-get-sued/257947/22 "2004-08-04T04:39:30Z")
> [@wolf\_meister](#): > > **alaric** > Are you defending the practice of Attorney Advertisements? > (I find that unusual considering you said Sokolve carries a phony “fork lift driver for Home Depot” wallet, so people would be willing to save his life). > Do you live in the USA? Just wondering. yes. What are your objections to the same? (I do recall one thity second spot that I swear started off with a finger hitting a cash register button, followed by the predictable ka-ching, that I thought perhaps sacrificed somewhat of dignity in the interest of creative exhuberence–but it was on late at night…) Re:the present abode of the king of the west goths… Alas, poor Otis, so soon forgot… Stilled, thy great voice, Shuffle no more, dancing feet. Sit by the dock of the bay no more Redding Booty. We dont wnat to stop now, Otis– we’ve been loving you too long… But it’s fa-fafa-fafa-fafa-fa… They see “dock of the bay” and think “Hong Kong?” Forgive my digression–when last examined, the dock in question was firmly within the physical, if not the psychic, boundaries of the United States. ---
**Author:** ![calm\_kiwi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@calm\_kiwi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/calm_kiwi)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2004, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-good-samaritans-still-get-sued/257947/23 "2004-08-04T08:06:38Z")
> [@si\_blakely](#): > > Nope, not just Auto coverage. There are no personal injury or medical malpractice suits in New Zealand. Workplace and public Health and Safety violations are prosecuted by the Dept of Labour/Occupational Safety and Health, treatment for sporting injuries (and earnings compensation) are covered by ACC, also medical misadventure/malpractice. Abuse victims are also able to make a case for compensation. You get ACC cover for shear stupidity, too (and injuries sustained while committing a criminal act). > > ACC are also responsible for longterm rehabilitation etc. NZ has a welfare state, with an accessible public heath system that generally works. > > Laywers are actually well regarded in NZ society, as they have to earn a living doing useful things (divorce, house conveyencing, contracts, tax law, criminal law etc). The courts are not clogged with personal injury suits, and get get on with the business of Justice. > > Simon Well said 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![cookeze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19b73/32.png) [@cookeze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cookeze)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2004, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-good-samaritans-still-get-sued/257947/24 "2004-08-04T15:32:32Z")
Wait. You guys got it wrong. You’ll never get thru law school. It’d not “good Samaritan.” It’s “good” Samaritan. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2004, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-good-samaritans-still-get-sued/257947/25 "2004-08-04T16:09:16Z")
Why does every question about the law have to descend to lawyer-bashing? Does anyone here have any evidence that James Sokolove has done anything unethical? How many people here have actually had to hire a lawyer to help them? In my own experience, lawyers I have consulted have assessed very reasonable fees for taking care of routine matters. It might be useful to consider that in the United States the injury lawsuit system is the **only** means of regulating bad or incompetent doctors. There is effectively **no** government or professional means of identifying and removing bad practitioners. ---
**Author:** ![alaricthegoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4bbf92/32.png) [@alaricthegoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alaricthegoth)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2004, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-good-samaritans-still-get-sued/257947/26 "2004-08-04T18:54:16Z")
> [@acsenray](#): > > Why does every question about the law have to descend to lawyer-bashing? Does anyone here have any evidence that James Sokolove has done anything unethical? How many people here have actually had to hire a lawyer to help them? In my own experience, lawyers I have consulted have assessed very reasonable fees for taking care of routine matters. > > It might be useful to consider that in the United States the injury lawsuit system is the **only** means of regulating bad or incompetent doctors. There is effectively **no** government or professional means of identifying and removing bad practitioners. thank you. btw–the converse is also true-that is to say in the abscence of the sort of private enforcement and the resultant conduct guidance that flosws from thye common law tort system, you end up with the civil law regulatory structure, which mny consider intrusive and ppotentially strtangling. ---
**Author:** ![alaricthegoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4bbf92/32.png) [@alaricthegoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alaricthegoth)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2004, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-good-samaritans-still-get-sued/257947/27 "2004-08-04T18:58:06Z")
> [@alaricthegoth](#): > > thank you. > > btw–the converse is also true-that is to say in the abscence of the sort of private enforcement and the resultant conduct guidance that flosws from thye common law tort system, you end up with the civil law regulatory structure, which mny consider intrusive and ppotentially strtangling. dingdingdingdingding incoherence alert! obscure unsupported reference! civil law=european reguilatory structures, based on napoleonic code, magistrates are the moving parties in vast majority of commercial regulatory issues common law tort system-US (england, sorta, 'cept they charge losers for winners attnoneys fees–changes the balance of poawer substantially) privatge enforcement is at the heart of the system–Every man an attorney general… ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2004, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-good-samaritans-still-get-sued/257947/28 "2004-08-04T19:15:21Z")
Well, the [Good Samaritan](http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/CalgarySun/News/2004/08/04/568179.html) in this story got badly beaten up: > [@](#): > > With his face bruised and scarred and both eyes bloodied and nearly swollen shut, Kevin Venn looks more like a victim than a rescuer. But the 20-year-old Richmond resident is both. Venn was badly beaten when he tried to save a woman from an alleged sexual assault early Saturday morning. He came forward yesterday to plead with her to identify herself and help police identify the man who attacked them both. > … > At about 12:45 a.m., he heard a woman scream and saw a man violently shake and try to restrain her. Venn told his supervisor to call 911 and crossed the parking lot with a fellow staff member to try to protect the woman from what he believed was a date rape in progress. > > Although Venn planned to calmly intervene, the exchange of words suddenly turned violent when the man – who at more than 6-ft. tall easily overpowered Venn’s slim, short frame – **attacked him with a drinking glass, slashing his forehead, breaking his nose and fracturing his skull** before taking off on foot. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-good-samaritans-still-get-sued/257947.md?page=1)