Immunity

Today, the City of Baltimore settled a wrongful death suit brought by the estates of three people killed in a SUV that collided with a ladder truck in 2007. The accident occurred at 3:00 am on December 9, 2007, when ...

Read More »

It appears that a settlement has been reached in a controversial wrongful death lawsuit filed by the widow of an upstate New York firefighter who died at a house fire 10 years ago. On March 7, 2002 Fayetteville firefighter Timothy ...

Read More »

There is a case pending before the Ohio Supreme Court that raises some important considerations for fire departments, and in particular questions about a department’s policy for emergency response driving. The case arose out of an apparatus accident in Canton, Ohio on ...

Read More »

A ruling this week in North Carolina has left an EMT without immunity protection in a suit by the family of a high school football player who died after practice in 2008. Atlas Fraley, 17, died from complications related to ...

Read More »

A New Jersey volunteer fire company that responded to a wires down incident in 2007, has been hit with a major portion of a $20.5 million verdict in favor of a man who was shocked and traumatically injured. Last Friday, ...

Read More »

“We live in a culture of litigation now, and I suppose the fire service isn’t any different from any others in that sense.” Interesting quote … from a former firefighter … and South Ayrshire Councillor John Allan about the settlement ...

Read More »

A settlement has been reached in the lawsuit against DeKalb County arising out of the death of Ann Bartlett. Mrs. Bartlett died on January 24, 2010 after her oxygen device sparked a fire in her home. Bartlett called 911 to ...

Read More »

A defamation lawsuit filed last year by an angry property owner against a Kentucky fire department and its fire chief has been dismissed. David Young, owner of Vincent Apartments, sued the city of Ashland and Fire Chief Scott Penick over ...

Read More »

In a troubling decision issued on September 21, 2010, the Missouri Court of Appeals ruled that immunity protection for emergency responders will not protect them if they mistakenly conclude a patient is not seriously ill. The background of the case is ...

Read More »

The Court of Appeals of Michigan handed down a ruling last week that dismissed a fire department and several firefighter defendants from a personal injury suit, but left one firefighter now to face a jury. The plaintiff in the suit, ...

Read More »

The June 18, 2007 Charleston Sofa Super Store fire is in the headlines again, this time on the civil suit side. On March 12, 2010, the South Carolina Court of Appeals refused to dismiss an appeal filed by the store ...

Read More »

When it comes to the liability of fire departments, suits for negligent firefighting concern fire chiefs and firefighters the most. Making life and death decisions in a time compressed, high-stress environment with incomplete situational awareness seems like a recipe for poor decisionmaking. These circumstances that make ...

Read More »

The City of Chicago just settled a wrongful death case for $3.2 million. The suit resulted from an incident where a Chicago engine company responded on a medical emergency, and the defibrillator did not work. The defibrillator failure that was ...

Read More »

A King County, Washington jury ordered the City of Seattle yesterday to pay $12.75 million to a former firefighter who was injured in an unusual sliding pole injury. Click here for article. The injury occurred in 2003, under apparently similar ...

Read More »