You are talking about a legal issue which means it's very specific to local laws. Some countries actually have laws that protect those who try to help. Some countries actually have laws that enforce medical professionals to help at the site of an accident. And some countries don't have that and you can be liable for stuff like that. So it really depends.
this post was submitted on 21 Sep 2026
42 points (90.4% liked)
No Stupid Questions
49885 readers
464 users here now
No such thing. Ask away!
!nostupidquestions is a community dedicated to being helpful and answering each others' questions on various topics.
The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:
Rules (interactive)
Rule 1- All posts must be legitimate questions. All post titles must include a question.
All posts must be legitimate questions, and all post titles must include a question. Questions that are joke or trolling questions, memes, song lyrics as title, etc. are not allowed here. See Rule 6 for all exceptions.
Rule 2- Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material.
Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material. You will be warned first, banned second.
Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.
Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.
Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.
That's it.
Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.
Questions which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.
Rule 6- Regarding META posts and joke questions.
Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-question posts using the [META] tag on your post title.
On fridays, you are allowed to post meme and troll questions, on the condition that it's in text format only, and conforms with our other rules. These posts MUST include the [NSQ Friday] tag in their title.
If you post a serious question on friday and are looking only for legitimate answers, then please include the [Serious] tag on your post. Irrelevant replies will then be removed by moderators.
Rule 7- You can't intentionally annoy, mock, or harass other members.
If you intentionally annoy, mock, harass, or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.
Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.
Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.
Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.
Let everyone have their own content.
Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here. This includes using AI responses and summaries.
Credits
Our breathtaking icon was bestowed upon us by @Cevilia!
The greatest banner of all time: by @TheOneWithTheHair!
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
Depends probably on your location. In a lot of countries (for example Germany) you are obligated to give first aid (independent of yourknowledge) . You can even be sued for not helping in an emergency.
In of most countries there are „Good Samaritan Laws“ that protect the people giving first aid!
And btw how often do they come by accidents? Here in Germany haven't seen one in years
I'm assuming the US, because
https://www.heitingandirwin.com/suing-the-good-samaritan-when-good-intentions-cause-serious-harm/
https://abcnews.com/TheLaw/story?id=6498405&page=1
https://nevinlawgroup.com/how-many-successful-good-samaritan-lawsuits-are.html
4.7% of lawsuits ending with a judgement against the good samaritan is not much, but more than 0
I mean, it ended Seinfeld.
I can't find their source for the "2019" review with the 4.7 %, but the main thing to know is that the good Samaritan laws protect you when you are acting in good faith and following your training.
So for example it would protect you while giving cpr like you've been trained to do, or while following directions from 911, but won't protect you if you stick a pen in someone's neck because you thought they needed a DIY trachyometry like you saw in a movie once.
Depends probably on your location. In a lot of countries (for example Germany) you are obligated to give first aid (independent of yourknowledge) . You can even be sued for not helping in an emergency.
This is the case for licensed medical practitioners in the US as well, including doctors and nurses. If a Flock camera catches the sister leaving the scene of an accident, and the sister is an RN, the sister can be civilly liable and possibly even criminally culpable for refusing to render aid within her professional scope.
I've been to Frankfurt area this summer and passed by accidents on the highway every couple days or so. They just usually clean them up very quickly.
Well, they both need to follow local law regarding their duty to provide aid. It varies around the country. They'd likely be protected as long as they didn't break professional ethics, but it does vary some.
There's "duty of care" (where you are obligated to provide aid, usually due to your profession) and separately there's "Good Samaritan" laws (you don't have to help, but you are qualified to do so and protected from any results). The details on both of these vary tremendously based on jurisdiction and circumstance, particularly the Good Samaritan requirements.
Yup, but in this case duty of care is more important overall since the sister is an RN. It's the difference between a possible lawsuit and criminal charges (depending on location) if anyone finds out she didn't render aid.
You know what's fucked up? My state at one point was set up so that if you were CPR certified, you weren't covered for the usual broken ribs kind of injuries. But if you weren't, you were clear. So a lot of people in my job (nurse's assistant) just skipped CPR certification entirely. It meant that we weren't required to do it at all, but that if we did, we were legally covered under good Samaritan.
They fixed it eventually, but it was fucking annoying.
Even worse, if you had a patient that didn't want resuscitation, but hadn't gotten an advanced directive or dnr done before becoming unable to, if you were certified, you had to do it. But if you weren't, you weren't allowed to. So, again, NAs had to decide what level of exposure they would tolerate vs what ethical boundaries they had, and fit it against the impossible to predict needs of future patients.
RNs, however, were required to keep a CPR cert (though it later got fixed so that an RN was automatically considered certfied).
Some of the labyrinthine bullshit around emergencies is just stupid.
In the US you usually don't have a duty of care for random people you may encounter during random activities. I would be amazed if she has a duty of care for people involved in traffic accidents that she happens to see, when she's not part of the first responders (EMTs and the like). She's not being paid for this work, and has signed no agreement to take that responsibility.
If you are talking about a specific jurisdiction where this is not the case, please let me know.
Yeah, it's like: the world? Render aid. America? Fuck no for lawsuits.
I always stop if no one is around or if everyone is just standing around looking uncertain. I couldn't stop myself if I wanted to, I feel compelled to go help. Lawsuits be damned, just stick to within your scope of practice and you're fine. Or if you're really that nervous, stabilize them and call EMS, and then leave... don't just do nothing.
Broken ribs with CPR? That's in your scope of practice. They were a DNR and you didn't know? Doesn't matter, EMS is gonna do the same, it's not worth risking a life because you're not sure. They have DNR tattooed on their forehead? Still doesn't matter, it doesn't count (though I may personally make a judgment call on that one)
The fear of lawsuits is just a little overhyped, there are laws to protect against them. Just stay within your scope and help
This is an interesting one.
I applaud your mom for helping, she must be prepared at all times? I mean I carry an AFAK (Advanced Individual First Aid Kit) to work or to the range for example. But I would be totally useless in a traffic accident. Like okay, maybe I can tourniquet a limb, put a splint on (high risk), or use a homeostatic bandage and maybe that will get you by until EMS shows up. Really, unless you know exactly what you're doing, you could kill someone.
And your sister is completely correct. You don't have to be right to sue someone, odds are it's a wasted expense on both parties. Anecdotally, when my sister got into a car accident with my car, the stupid cunt my sister had ran into had the gall to try and sue my mom as well as myself. They couldn't get to me at all, I was 2000 miles away. If only I had my personal attorney that I do today, I would have sued right back.
It depends on what kind of a nurse your sister is. Not all nurses have the same experiences and well it could traumatize them for life. I would trust a combat medic over most nurses. I mean I had a nurse that fucked up an IV 4 times before I told him hey do it like this, I need to be mobile, tape here, tape there. My mom was a head nurse, and when she had surgery it was funny to hear how many times she had to correct the nurses.
Another thing is your mom might have the eye of who's viable and who's a casualty. And that's a hard thing to accept. I mean going home one time, I saw a guy on the road from a motorcycle crash and people trying to help him. He's screaming in agony, blood is everywhere. No helmet. Think, a peak time parking lot of cars you see in California traffic surrounding the area. I was like, yeah he's dead, I think I saw it the news actually creepy. At least my brain mostly blocked out that one except the screams.
So yeah, your sister might not want to experience that nor has the confidence to mend a situation like that.
But I would be totally useless in a traffic accident. Like okay, maybe I can tourniquet a limb, put a splint on (high risk), or use a homeostatic bandage and maybe that will get you by until EMS shows up.
don't underestimate how important it is to be able to evaluate a casualty. your training and skills will stop those 'oh I'm fine' 0.o pupils dilated types that want to go home, or knowing what shock looks like, knowing that feeling clammy and sick to one's stomach might indicate a cardiac event etc., I hope people don't give up on helping others, stuff like this saves lives.
both are right, product from their era. People have become more litigious, and your sister grew up with that culture, whereas your mother didn't
Not your English teacher
Your mom
BOOM, ROASTED!
I also think there's a non-zero chance to get into trouble but there's also a non-zero chance to get hit by lightning soooo.....
Ask if they need help. If they say yes, you’re good. *
* this is not legal advice™
It's not the people who are sue-happy. It's the health insurance companies trying not to pay for coverage. The completely absurd lawsuits - McDonalds coffee, aunt suing nephew, all the suits against good samaritans - are subrogated cases, where the named plaintiff is obligated to allow their insurer to file suit in their name.
Subrogation is also behind most medical malpractice cases: health insurers suing doctors and hospitals in the name of the patient, just so the insurer isn't the one paying the bill.
The McDonald's one wasn't crazy either if you look into it, McDonald's engaged in unsafe practices which lead to a customer being hurt
The fucking McDonald's case will never cease to haunt the internet.
In civilised countries there are robust laws protecting the customers and oversight agencies doling out fines or even closing down unsafe establishments. In the US, you have to sue the restaurant that caused you disfigurement and disability through their repeated and reported unsafe practices just so you can pay your resulting medical bills, and the internet will forever ridicule you for it.
The coffee was so hot it fused her labia together. Straight up melted her fuckin pussylips.
It depends on how oblivious your sister is.
She has just seen to many lawsuits from traveling around. Like if you give CPR to an elderly person or something and break a rib you are responsible.
If a nurse won't give CPR to somebody because they're afraid of getting sued for a broken rib, then they shouldn't be a nurse.
I've been CPR trained, and we were taught that broken ribs are a normal outcome, and we shouldn't let that worry slow us down, because the alternative is the person dying. I've done CPR on somebody that overdosed in the parking lot until someone showed up with narcan, and I'd do it again.
Its a convenient excuse. I know that's easy for me to say, not being the person to face the small chance of liability. I just don't know how someone trained can walk past and be like not my problem. Seems so fucking cold
If you're in the US, good Samaritan law will protect against that situation. They could try and sue, but it will on all likelihood be thrown out.
Sorry for being curt.
Nice to meet you Curt, my name is dad.
Hi daddy
In the US, you can't be held liable for making a good-faith effort to render aid; it's called the Good Samaritan Law.
That's inaccurate.
Samaritan laws aren't national. They also don't always apply to licenced professionals, though if you're acting in scope, you'll usually be fine.
Those laws are state based in the US, as are duty to rescue laws and related ones.
https://thelegalguide.org/good-samaritan-law-coverage-united-states/
That's your basic breakdown.
Generally speaking though, being in a different state from the one you're licenced in changes you to be a "civilian", as not all licensure transfers automatically. Depends on the state, and what your license is in.
In other words, as always in the US, never assume that what you think is law is actually law everywhere in the US. People get tripped up by it
Your sister is going to have a crisis of conscience/faith at some point, since she’s definitely in the wrong career/line of work if she’s a nurse that doesn’t want to help people. If she’s just there for the paycheck, she’s still in the wrong line of work because they don’t get paid enough for what they get put through.
Didn't sound like they don't want to help people, rather don't want to get sued helping people on the street. Someone showed good Samaritan's lose their lawsuit 4.5% of the time.
I suppose if someone tried to help but made the injury worse there's an argument there but a trained nurse would presumably know what they're doing.