# Good Samaritan Laws --How Much Protection Do They Really Offer?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-samaritan-laws-how-much-protection-do-they-really-offer/531317>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 4, 2010, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-samaritan-laws-how-much-protection-do-they-really-offer/531317 "2010-03-04T18:50:10Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Chief\_Pedant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@Chief\_Pedant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chief_Pedant)\
**Post date:** [March 6, 2010, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-samaritan-laws-how-much-protection-do-they-really-offer/531317/21 "2010-03-06T13:43:36Z")

</div>

> [@alice\_in\_wonderland](#):
>
> If I’m recalling correctly, the ‘Good Samaritan’ in the above situation was drunk and hysterical and hauled the ‘victim’ out of the car while her seatbelt was still on, causing substantially more injury than the car accident itself.
> 
> That doesn’t strike me as a good deed any more than a drunk picking a fight with someone because they think the other person was rude to their girlfriend (or whatever).

I don’t know the details of that case, and don’t care. In a Good Samaritan situation, the point is that the assister never meets a perfect standard, hindsight is always better than decision making contemprary to the event, and every action is open to criticism for one reason or another. Moreover, any injuries will be blamed by the plaintiff’s attorney on the assister rather than the event, even without any way to know that. That’s the whole idea of having the law in the first place.

The enormous consequence to society of holding that a judgment error made in good faith will be punished by legal accountability is horrendously bad.

I am certain a plaintiff attorney would paint the Good Samaritan here as hysterical, drunk and reckless. Consider the opposite scenario: The girls have been drinking. There’s an accident. The victim is choking to death on her own blood and needs nothing more than a repositioning to survive. “I had had a couple of glasses of wine and I wasn’t sure I was sober enough to help. I was also quite anxious from the accident itself. So I just sat there meditating while she died.”

As an aside, I should note that the comments above suggesting that, net net, immediate transport to an expert facility saves the most lives (rather than complex algorithms around immobilization and scene stabilization) is correct. If you find the **Pedant** in a severe MVA, haul me out and drive me to the hospital. Every moment counts and “stabilization” at the scene is way overrated.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\
**Post date:** [March 7, 2010, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-samaritan-laws-how-much-protection-do-they-really-offer/531317/22 "2010-03-07T08:12:03Z")

</div>

Two clarifications:

1. Are ‘Good Samaritan’ laws created with litigation, or with prosecution in mind? IOW were they created to protect people from being convicted, or from being sued (or both?).

2. There seems to be a different kind of Samaritan law, the kind depicted in the series finale of Seinfeld. What’s up with that?

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-samaritan-laws-how-much-protection-do-they-really-offer/531317.md?page=1)