New measures to help “Good Samaritans and community heroes” in England and Wales have been announced by the UK Government.
The measures aim to support the millions of people who volunteer and carry out good deeds every year, by making sure they are not put off from participating by worries about risk and liability if something goes wrong.
To do this, the Government intends to change the law so that judges will have to give weight to three additional factors when deciding negligence cases:
- If the person was doing something for ‘the benefit of society’ – to give weight to the fact people were doing a good deed like volunteering, running an event or trip, or helping out by clearing snow.
- If they had been acting in a ‘generally responsible way’ – to make sure the court will give consideration to the fact people may have taken care when organising an activity but an accident has happened.
- If they were ‘acting in emergency’ – if they stepped in to help someone in danger but something went wrong.
The Government says that these proposed changes to the law would make sure the courts take into account the context of an incident if a negligence case is brought. They would not prohibit cases from being brought, and people will still be able to seek justice if they have fallen victim to an accident caused by genuine negligence.
These changes will be contained in new legislation and are expected to come into effect next year.
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