The New Mexico Good Samaritan Law protects you from civil liability when you voluntarily help someone during an emergency, as long as you act in good faith, don’t expect payment, and your conduct isn’t grossly negligent. The rule is codified at NMSA 1978, Section 24-10-3, and it covers any person who provides care or assistance at or near the scene of an emergency.1Justia. New Mexico Statutes Section 24-10-3 – Persons Coming to Aid or Rescue of Another Rendering Emergency Care; Release From Liability
Who the Law Protects
The statute says “no person” — meaning anyone, not just trained responders. A teenager who pulls someone from a burning car, a bystander who starts CPR at a restaurant, or a hiker who splints a stranger’s ankle on a trail all fall within the protection. So does an off-duty nurse, paramedic, or doctor who happens on an emergency and stops to help.1Justia. New Mexico Statutes Section 24-10-3 – Persons Coming to Aid or Rescue of Another Rendering Emergency Care; Release From Liability
Three conditions have to be true:
- You acted voluntarily. No one ordered you, and you weren’t already on the job with a professional duty to respond.
- You acted in good faith. Your purpose was to help, not to exploit the situation.
- You didn’t expect payment. Your motive at the time you stepped in wasn’t compensation.
What Counts as an Emergency
Section 24-10-4 defines emergency as an unexpected injury or illness occurring in any public or private place, resulting from a motor vehicle accident, an act of God, or another similar event.2Justia. New Mexico Statutes Section 24-10-4 – Emergency Defined That “similar event” language is intentionally open, covering falls, fires, cardiac arrests, drownings, and other sudden crises.
The operative word is “unexpected.” A car wreck you drive past, someone collapsing in a store, a swimmer in distress — those are emergencies. Scheduled medical treatment or routine first aid you’re employed to provide are not. The statute is built for the unplanned moment when you happen to be there.
Where the Protection Ends: Gross Negligence
The single carve-out is gross negligence. If your conduct meets that standard, you can be held liable despite having stopped to help.1Justia. New Mexico Statutes Section 24-10-3 – Persons Coming to Aid or Rescue of Another Rendering Emergency Care; Release From Liability The word “gross” is doing real work here. Ordinary negligence — the honest mistakes a reasonable person might make under stress — is exactly what the law forgives. Bandaging a wound imperfectly, forgetting a step in CPR, or moving someone in a way you later learn wasn’t ideal falls into that forgiven category.
Gross negligence is a much higher bar. It’s conduct so far below what any reasonable person would do that it suggests a conscious disregard for the injured person’s safety. Attempting a procedure you have no training for, dragging a person with an obvious spinal injury by the arms, or walking away mid-rescue in a way that foreseeably worsens the outcome are the kinds of actions that start moving into that territory. Make an honest effort and do something imperfect, and the law covers you. Act in a way no reasonable person would find acceptable, and you can face liability.
The Payment Exception
The statute doesn’t apply when emergency care is given for payment, with the expectation of payment, or by someone who is at the scene because they or their employer were soliciting business or performing paid services.1Justia. New Mexico Statutes Section 24-10-3 – Persons Coming to Aid or Rescue of Another Rendering Emergency Care; Release From Liability This exception has two parts that people mix up.
The first is direct: on-duty EMTs, nurses working their shifts, and lifeguards at a pool are providing services they’re paid to provide. They’re held to normal professional liability standards.
The second is about why you were at the scene in the first place. A tow truck driver dispatched to a crash and a roadside assistance worker already on a call are there for commercial reasons, and any emergency aid they give falls outside the statute. That is different from an off-duty paramedic driving home from the grocery store who witnesses a wreck. That paramedic is not at the scene for business, is not expecting payment, and qualifies for the same protection as any other bystander. The exception targets the commercial context of your presence, not your credentials.
Consent: When You Need It, When You Don’t
A conscious, alert person can refuse your help. If someone tells you they don’t want assistance, continuing anyway can expose you to legal risk regardless of your intentions. Unauthorized physical contact can constitute battery, and the key element is the lack of consent, not any intent to harm.
When a person is unconscious or can’t communicate, the law assumes they would consent to reasonable emergency care. That’s implied consent. You don’t need permission before performing CPR on someone unresponsive or pulling an unconscious driver from a burning vehicle. The practical rule: if the person can talk to you, ask before you touch them. If they can’t, act.
Is There a Duty to Help?
No. New Mexico does not impose a general legal duty on bystanders to rescue or assist strangers. If you witness an accident and keep driving, you haven’t broken the law. The Good Samaritan Law removes a barrier to helping; it doesn’t punish anyone for not helping. A duty to render aid generally exists only where a special relationship creates one — a parent to a child, an employer to employees in certain circumstances, a professional responder on the job.
Once you do begin, though, walking away in a manner that leaves the person worse off than if you’d never stopped can factor into a negligence analysis. Starting CPR and abandoning it mid-arrest is a different situation than never having stopped at all.
Using an AED
New Mexico has separate liability protections for people who use automated external defibrillators, under NMSA 1978, Article 10C.3Justia. New Mexico Statutes Section 24-10C-7 – Limited Liability These devices are designed for untrained bystanders, and the legislature recognized that people would hesitate without legal cover.
Federal law adds a baseline of immunity for anyone who uses or attempts to use an AED on a person experiencing a perceived medical emergency, under the Cardiac Arrest Survival Act at 42 U.S.C. § 238q.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 U.S. Code 238q – Liability Regarding Emergency Use of Automated External Defibrillators Both the state and federal protections carry the same carve-out: immunity doesn’t apply where harm results from willful misconduct, gross negligence, or reckless indifference to safety. If an AED is on the wall and someone has collapsed, use it. The device walks you through each step with voice prompts, and the legal protection here is as strong as it gets.
Calling 911 During an Overdose
New Mexico has a separate criminal immunity statute for drug and alcohol overdoses at Section 30-31-27.1. This is the provision that matters most when the reason someone hesitates to call for help is that they might be arrested themselves.
If you seek medical help for someone experiencing a drug- or alcohol-related overdose, you cannot be arrested, charged, or prosecuted for drug possession, violating a restraining order, or violating conditions of probation or parole, provided that the evidence for those alleged violations was discovered only because you sought help. The same protection extends to the overdose victim, and property cannot be seized through civil forfeiture based on evidence obtained because of the call.5Justia. New Mexico Statutes Section 30-31-27.1 – Overdose Prevention; Limited Immunity
The immunity has limits. It covers simple possession and the specific violations listed above. It doesn’t shield anyone from trafficking charges, assault, or other serious offenses unrelated to possession. And if law enforcement already had independent evidence of a crime, the call doesn’t erase it.
Volunteering Through an Organization
If you volunteer through a nonprofit or governmental entity — a community emergency response team, a volunteer fire department, a disaster relief group — the federal Volunteer Protection Act at 42 U.S.C. § 14503 adds a layer of liability protection on top of state law. It applies to volunteers acting within the scope of their responsibilities for the organization, provided they held any required license or certification, and provided the harm wasn’t caused by willful or criminal misconduct, gross negligence, or reckless indifference to safety.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 14503 – Limitation on Liability for Volunteers
The federal act doesn’t apply to informal Good Samaritan situations. For the person who pulls over at a highway accident and starts helping, New Mexico’s state statute is the relevant law.