Untitled California Attorney General Opinion

BACKGROUND

California has a substantial population of people without homes. 1 Concern for the healthcare needs of this unhoused population prompted the question here. We are informed that medical professionals otherwise willing to volunteer medical services to unhoused individuals sometimes decline to do so based on concerns relating to insurance coverage and liability issues. Senator Umberg asks whether these professionals could be exempted from liability by the Good Samaritan provision in Health and Safety Code section 1799.102.

Common law principles provide that a person generally has no duty to come to the aid of another, but if a person elects to provide aid, that gives rise to a duty to exercise due care in doing so. 2 Good Samaritan laws are a legislative response to this due care requirement, limiting or eliminating liability for those who offer aid with no expectation of payment. 3

The Good Samaritan law at issue here, Health and Safety Code section 1799.102, generally shields from liability a person who provides emergency care, not for compensation, at the “scene of an emergency.” 4 We are asked whether the declaration of a shelter crisis under Government Code section…