Texas has a law, called the Good Samaritan Law, that protects people from liability if they accidentally hurt someone else while trying to render aid during an emergency. The purpose of the law is to encourage people to try to help however they can when someone has been hurt, such as performing CPR on a person having a heart attack or by giving mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to a drowning victim, by protecting them against a lawsuit if they are ultimately unable to save the victim.

Unlike the laws of some other states, Texas does not require that the person giving the care be a licensed medical professional in order to be protected, but the scope of the Good Samaritan Law is limited in other ways. For example, it does not apply to a medical professional who is providing care for pay, such as an ER doctor or an ambulance attendant. It also does not apply if the person rendering the aid was the same person who caused the injury. Finally, it does not protect an aid provider if his acts were "willfully or wantonly negligent," which means that the person was so careless that we can assume he acted with conscious indifference.

Although emergency medical treatment can sometimes hurt a victim rather than help him, Texas has decided that it will encourage people to give what help they can.

If you've been the victim of a bad samaritan, or been sued for your actions regarding a car accident, contact Street & Ragsdale immediately for a free case analysis. 

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