State legislators quickly introduced three bills after the California Supreme Court ruled in December that non-medical Good Samaritans are not protected from lawsuits if they inadvertently or negligently cause harm for rendering non-medical care at the scene of an emergency.
One of those bills -- Assembly Bill 83 -- has been amended from an intent bill to a bill with specific language. The bill states that non-medical good Samaritans who help out in an emergency are exempt from civil liability unless their actions constitute gross negligence or willful or wanton misconduct.
This bill would, in effect, change the law after the Court's decision in Van Horn v. Watson. See our earlier blog post for more details.
AB 83 is authored by Mike Feuer (D-Los Angeles), the new chair of the Assembly Judiciary Committee. Its principal coauthor is Senator John Benoit (R-Palm Desert), who previously introduced SB 39, on the same subject. Also introduced was AB 90, authored by Anthony Adams (R-Hesperia) on the same subject.