House Panel Steps Forward On Protection Of Volunteers

Good Samaritans would be immune from some legal liability resulting from their volunteer work under a bill approved Tuesday by the House Judiciary Committee and sent to the full House for a vote.

The measure would encourage more volunteerism by removing the threat of lawsuits arising from mistakes or accidents, the committee’s Republicans said. The Senate passed similar legislation on May 1.

“Increasingly, individuals who would otherwise volunteer to be the Little League coach or the Girl Scout troop leader or the care-giver to the AIDS baby are declining to serve because of perceived liability threats,” Committee Chairman Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., said.

House Democrats on the committee scoffed at the bill, however, saying that the federal government shouldn’t interfere with states’ ability to set their own legal liability standards. Most of their suggestions for amending the bill were voted down by the committee.

“There is no known need. There is no known evidence that there has been a decline in volunteerism,” Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., said. “Here we go with more feel-good legislation which has little to do with the real problems we face.”

No volunteer working for a non-profit group or government agency would be liable for harm as long as it was not caused by “willful or criminal misconduct, gross negligence, reckless misconduct or a conscious, flagrant indifference to the rights and safety of the individual harmed by the volunteer,” the bill said.

The law would apply only to individuals and not the groups for which they volunteer.

If passed and signed by President Clinton, the bill would pre-empt state laws dealing with the issue except in states that have laws that provide even greater protection to volunteers. If state legislatures decide they don’t like the proposed federal volunteer protection, however, they can vote to restore their own laws.