Under the Hawaii Good Samaritan Law, you cannot be sued for civil damages if you provide emergency care in good faith, without pay, at the scene of an accident or emergency. The rule is codified at Hawaii Revised Statutes 663-1.5, and it covers ordinary bystander acts from basic first aid to using an AED on someone in cardiac arrest.1Justia. Hawaii Code 663-1.5 – Exception to Liability The protection has limits, and they matter.
The Three Conditions You Have To Meet
The immunity attaches only when all three of these are true. You must act in good faith, meaning you genuinely intend to help rather than harm. You must not receive or expect payment for the care. And the care must happen at the scene of the accident or emergency.1Justia. Hawaii Code 663-1.5 – Exception to Liability
The “at the scene” piece is narrower than it sounds. The statute ties bystander protection to being physically present where the emergency is happening. If you ride along to the hospital and keep providing care there in an unofficial capacity, you have stepped outside what the statute contemplates for laypersons. Separate subsections address hospital care, but those cover licensed physicians and rescue teams, not ordinary helpers.
When the Protection Falls Away
Two situations pull the shield down.
Gross Negligence or Wanton Conduct
The statute removes immunity for “gross negligence or wanton acts or omissions.”1Justia. Hawaii Code 663-1.5 – Exception to Liability Hawaii’s civil jury instructions describe gross negligence as an aggravated failure to use the care a reasonable person would use — significantly worse than ordinary carelessness. Wanton conduct is reckless and heedless, marked by callous disregard for other people’s safety.2Hawaii State Judiciary. Hawaii Civil Jury Instructions
An honest mistake while trying to help sits comfortably inside the protection. Moving an injured person when you probably should not have, or cinching a tourniquet too tight, is ordinary negligence at most. Attempting a surgical procedure you have no training for, when less invasive help was available, is the kind of thing that starts to look grossly negligent.
Getting Paid
The statute protects uncompensated care only. If you receive or expect payment for the assistance, the immunity does not apply. That is why a paid EMT on duty is held to professional standards rather than shielded as a volunteer.
Do You Even Have To Help?
No. Hawaii does not impose a general legal duty on bystanders to rescue someone in danger. You can walk past a person having a medical emergency on the sidewalk and face no criminal or civil penalty for doing nothing. The Good Samaritan Law removes the fear of a lawsuit if you choose to act; it does not force you to act.
Property owners are treated differently. Hawaii courts have recognized that when a property owner knows or has reason to know that someone on their premises is ill or injured, the owner has an affirmative duty to render reasonable aid and to care for that person until someone else can take over.3Justia. Hawaii Code 663-1.5 – Exception to Liability – Section: Case Notes A mall owner who watches a customer collapse can face liability that an ordinary passerby on the street would not.
Using an AED
Bystander AED use has its own subsection. If you use an automated external defibrillator in good faith and without pay on a person in immediate danger of dying, you are protected, regardless of where the AED is located.1Justia. Hawaii Code 663-1.5 – Exception to Liability Grabbing one off the wall of a shopping mall, a gym, or an office lobby is covered.
The statute also extends immunity to any person or entity that provides an AED or an AED training program, so that a business or school does not create a lawsuit risk simply by keeping a device on-site.
Doctors, PAs, and Off-Duty Professionals
The rules shift when a medical professional is the one helping. Subsection (c) of HRS 663-1.5 protects a physician or physician assistant licensed in Hawaii or any other state who provides emergency care in a hospital, without pay, to someone in immediate danger of dying. But unlike an ordinary bystander, the professional has to meet the standard of care expected of a similar professional under similar circumstances.1Justia. Hawaii Code 663-1.5 – Exception to Liability
The practical effect: a bystander who performs clumsy CPR is protected so long as the conduct is not grossly negligent. A physician who volunteers to help in an emergency room is judged against what a competent doctor would do in that situation. Immunity still exists; the bar for losing it is lower.
The statute also drops the usual supervisory requirements for a physician assistant providing emergency care in this context. The PA does not need a supervising physician who meets all the normal requirements set out in Chapter 453.
Good Samaritan protection assumes you have no obligation to help in the first place. A nurse working a hospital shift already owes a duty of care to patients in that facility, and that duty predates the emergency. On-duty hospital staff and emergency responders generally cannot claim bystander-style immunity for actions taken as part of their regular jobs.
Overdoses Are Covered Separately
Hawaii treats drug and alcohol overdoses under different statutes. HRS 329-43.6 gives limited immunity from prosecution to a person who seeks medical assistance for someone experiencing an overdose. Act 68 of 2016 added immunity for anyone who administers an opioid antagonist such as naloxone to a person suffering from an opioid-related overdose, and for the healthcare professionals and pharmacists who prescribe or dispense it. These provisions run alongside the main Good Samaritan statute rather than through it, but they follow the same idea: clear the legal obstacles so people move quickly when a life is at stake.