North Carolina Good Samaritan Law: Civil & Overdose Immunity

Under the North Carolina Good Samaritan law, two separate statutes protect people who step in during an emergency. N.C. Gen. Stat. 90-21.14 shields anyone who voluntarily provides first aid or emergency medical care from civil lawsuits, as long as they act in good faith. N.C. Gen. Stat. 90-96.2 gives limited criminal immunity to people who call 911 for a drug overdose. Both laws exist to remove the legal fear that would otherwise keep someone from helping.¹²

Civil Immunity When You Give Emergency Aid

If someone collapses in front of you and you start CPR, or you stop bleeding at a wreck on the side of the road, 90-21.14 is what keeps you from being sued over the outcome. The protection applies when the circumstances clearly call for quick action and the need for immediate treatment is so obvious that any delay would seriously worsen the person’s condition or endanger their life.¹

The statute covers ordinary bystanders, volunteer medical providers at local health department facilities, volunteers at nonprofit community health centers, and volunteer rescue squad members. What ties them together is that they act voluntarily and without compensation. A doctor who stops at a roadside accident on their day off is covered. That same doctor treating a patient in the office is not, because care given in the normal course of a profession falls outside the statute.¹

When You Can Still Be Held Liable

The civil protection is strong, but not absolute. You lose immunity if your actions rise to gross negligence, wanton conduct, or intentional wrongdoing.³ Ordinary negligence — an honest mistake made while trying to help — is not enough to create liability. The injured person would need to show something far worse: reckless disregard for their safety, or deliberate harm.

A splint that isn’t perfect, a compression that isn’t textbook, a rescue breath that doesn’t work: these are the well-meant errors the law forgives. Attempting a procedure you have no business attempting while ignoring obvious signs you’re making things worse is a different story, and a court could find that crosses the line.

Using an AED

North Carolina added a separate statute, 90-21.15, for automated external defibrillators. Using an AED in a medical emergency counts as first aid under 90-21.14, so the same civil immunity attaches to the person who uses the device. The protection also reaches people who made the device available: whoever provided the CPR and AED training, whoever is responsible for the site where the AED is located (as long as a training program is in place), and any North Carolina-licensed physician who wrote a prescription for the device without compensation. No state law requires anyone to buy or place an AED, so these protections exist purely to encourage voluntary placement.⁴

Federal law adds another layer. Under the Cardiac Arrest Survival Act, anyone who uses or attempts to use an AED on a person in a perceived medical emergency is immune from civil liability for resulting harm, unless the harm was caused by willful or criminal misconduct, gross negligence, or conscious indifference to the victim’s safety.⁵

Calling 911 for an Overdose

90-96.2, enacted in 2013 and amended most recently in 2023, gives limited criminal immunity to people who call 911 for someone experiencing a drug-related overdose. The statute defines a drug-related overdose as an acute condition caused by drug use that a layperson would reasonably believe requires emergency medical help.²

The immunity covers both the person calling for help and the person overdosing. That matters because in many overdose situations the bystanders are themselves drug users who fear arrest if they dial 911. Shielding both parties from prosecution for specific offenses removes what would otherwise be a deadly reason to do nothing.

What You Have to Do to Qualify

The overdose immunity does not apply automatically. You have to meet each of these conditions:⁶

Act in good faith — genuinely believe someone is overdosing and contact emergency services to help them.
Provide your name to the 911 system or to law enforcement at the scene.
Stay with the person until help arrives, or leave only if you’re going with them to a medical facility.
Don’t interfere with or delay emergency responders once they arrive.

Missing any one of these can forfeit the protection.

Which Charges Are Covered — and Which Aren’t

The immunity applies only to a limited set of drug-related charges: possession of small quantities of controlled substances, possession of drug paraphernalia, and underage alcohol consumption.⁶ These are the exact charges that would otherwise deter someone from calling for help.

The immunity does not extend to trafficking, distribution, or manufacturing. If someone is dealing drugs and a buyer overdoses, calling 911 will protect that caller from a simple possession charge but will not shield them from trafficking charges. The line is drawn deliberately: the law encourages life-saving calls without opening a loophole for the drug trade.

The charges the immunity does cover carry real weight. Under North Carolina’s controlled substance laws, possessing a Schedule I or Schedule II substance like heroin, fentanyl, or cocaine is a Class H felony. Possessing a substance in Schedules III through VI is a Class I felony.⁷ Both classes can carry months of prison time depending on prior record.⁸ Fear of those consequences is exactly what stops people from picking up the phone during an overdose, which is what the statute is designed to counteract.

One boundary to be aware of: this immunity is a state law protection. Federal drug laws have no equivalent overdose immunity statute, so federal prosecution remains theoretically possible, though it is rare for simple possession amounts.

Giving Someone Naloxone

The same 2013 legislation established protections for naloxone, the medication that can reverse an opioid overdose. A practitioner who prescribes naloxone is immune from civil and criminal liability that might otherwise arise from that prescription. A person who administers naloxone to someone experiencing an overdose is also immune from civil and criminal liability. These protections work alongside the 911 immunity: one removes the fear of prosecution for calling for help, the other removes the fear of liability for using the antidote.

Are You Required to Help?

No. North Carolina follows the common law rule that there is no general duty to rescue a stranger. You can walk past someone having a medical emergency, and while that may be morally questionable, it is not illegal. The Good Samaritan statutes protect people who choose to help; they don’t punish people who don’t.

A duty to act does arise in some limited situations. If you created the dangerous situation that put someone at risk, you may have an obligation to help. And if you begin a rescue and then abandon it negligently, leaving the person worse off than if you had never intervened, you can be held liable for that. Absent that kind of connection to the emergency, helping is a choice.

Off-Duty Doctors and Nurses

Health care providers sometimes worry their professional training creates a higher standard when they help outside of work. Under 90-21.14, the question is whether the care is provided in the normal and ordinary course of the provider’s business or profession. A physician who stops to help at a highway accident is outside their regular professional duties, and the immunity applies.¹

The distinction that matters is whether you have a pre-existing duty to the patient. An on-call physician covering a hospital’s emergency department has a professional obligation to patients who arrive during that shift. A family doctor who witnesses a choking incident at a restaurant does not. Only the volunteer gets Good Samaritan protection.

Extra Protection for Volunteers Under Federal Law

People who volunteer for nonprofit organizations or government agencies get an additional layer of coverage under the federal Volunteer Protection Act of 1997. It shields volunteers from civil liability for harm caused while acting within the scope of their volunteer responsibilities, as long as the harm was not caused by willful misconduct, gross negligence, reckless behavior, or conscious indifference to the victim’s safety.⁹

To qualify, the volunteer must have been properly licensed or certified if the activity required it, and the harm cannot have been caused while operating a motor vehicle or other vehicle requiring a license or insurance. The federal law also limits punitive damages: a claimant cannot recover them against a volunteer unless they prove by clear and convincing evidence that the volunteer’s conduct was willful, criminal, or showed conscious indifference to the victim’s rights or safety.⁹ The federal act runs alongside North Carolina’s Good Samaritan law rather than replacing it, so a volunteer who qualifies under both has overlapping shields.

1
North Carolina General Assembly. North Carolina Code 90-21.14 – First Aid or Emergency Treatment; Liability Limitation
2
North Carolina General Assembly. North Carolina Code 90-96.2 – Drug-Related Overdose Treatment; Limited Immunity
3
North Carolina General Assembly. North Carolina Code 90-21.14 – First Aid or Emergency Treatment; Liability Limitation
4
North Carolina General Assembly. North Carolina Code 90-21.15 – Emergency Treatment Using Automated External Defibrillator; Immunity
5
U.S. Government Publishing Office. Good Samaritan Protections Regarding Emergency Use of Automated External Defibrillators
6
North Carolina General Assembly. North Carolina Code 90-96.2 – Drug-Related Overdose Treatment; Limited Immunity
7
North Carolina General Assembly. North Carolina Code 90-95 – Violations; Penalties
8
North Carolina General Assembly. North Carolina Code 15A-1340.17 – Punishment Limits for Each Class of Offense
9
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 14503 – Limitation on Liability for Volunteers