This Page Was Last Updated: 03 May, 2007 21:27

PUBLIC DUTY DOCTRINE

The following is a memorandum distributed to Durham County EMS, Fire, and 9-1-1 personnel by EMS Director J. M. "Mickey" Tezai.  It is provided for your information.

On Friday, 7 April 2000, the North Carolina Supreme Court ruled that the existing Public Duty Doctrine that was originally intended to protect public safety personnel from frivolous lawsuits now only applies to law enforcement personnel.

Simply put, this means that anyone can sue any individual 9-1-1, fire, or EMS employee (either paid or volunteer), for anything they dislike about their actions.  The ruling came as a result of the failure of a 9-1-1 Telecommunicator somewhere in North Carolina to dispatch an emergency for 6 minutes.  Not sure where it was, but that's not the important part. 

The most significant issue is the possibility of frivolous lawsuits being filed for things such a perceived long response times, personnel actions that do not meet expectations, etc.  Since the ruling was only issued on 7 April, there has not been time to determine a course of action.  Chuck Kitchen is monitoring the issue, and will let us know what we need to do. 

The expected action would be to introduce an offsetting bill into the Legislature, but that is yet to be determined.  The only advice available at this point is to make your folks aware that they are no longer covered by the Public Duty Doctrine, and to conduct themselves accordingly.

We should all be aware of the current public attitude regarding lawsuits, and try to avoid getting into a position that would generate any legal actions.