The Good Samaritan law in Michigan is not one statute but several, each protecting a different kind of rescuer from being sued for trying to help in an emergency. If you are an ordinary bystander who performs CPR or uses an AED, one law covers you. If you are an off-duty nurse or doctor who stops at a crash, a different law applies. If you call 911 for someone overdosing, a third set of provisions can even shield you from drug possession charges. The common thread across all of them: you are protected when you act in good faith, and that protection disappears if your conduct amounts to gross negligence or willful misconduct.
Michigan has no general duty to rescue. You cannot be punished for walking past an emergency. These statutes exist precisely because the state cannot force people to help, so the legislature removed the main reason people hesitate — the fear of being sued.
Which Law Covers You
Finding the right statute is the first step, because the conditions are not the same.
Bystanders Performing CPR or Using an AED
If you are not a medical professional, your protection comes from MCL 691.1504. It covers any individual who, having no duty to do so, voluntarily and in good faith performs CPR or uses an automated external defibrillator on someone in an emergency.1Michigan Legislature. MCL Section 691.1504 You do not need training or certification. You are shielded from civil liability as long as your conduct does not rise to gross negligence or willful and wanton misconduct.
The same statute also protects the physician who authorized the AED, the person who trained others to use it, and the owner of the premises where it was located.1Michigan Legislature. MCL Section 691.1504
Off-Duty Healthcare Professionals
Licensed physicians, physician’s assistants, registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, and licensed EMS providers are covered by MCL 691.1501 when they volunteer at an emergency scene. To qualify, all four of the following must be true:
- The care is given in good faith.
- The professional is not being paid for it. An off-duty nurse who stops at a car accident qualifies; the same nurse working a paid hospital shift does not.
- There was no pre-existing patient relationship before the emergency.
- The care is rendered at the scene of the emergency, not in a clinical setting.
When those conditions are met, the professional is shielded from civil liability for injuries caused by the emergency care unless the conduct amounts to gross negligence or willful and wanton misconduct.2Michigan Legislature. MCL Section 691.1501 – Liability of Certain Persons for Emergency Care
The compensation and pre-existing relationship conditions are the ones people miss. A doctor who treats an injured stranger at a community event is protected. The same doctor treating an established patient in the office when the visit becomes an emergency is not covered by this statute, because the patient relationship already existed.
EMS Personnel on Duty
Medical first responders, EMTs, paramedics, and similar personnel acting on duty are covered by MCL 333.20965 when they provide care outside a hospital or before handing a patient off to hospital staff. The protection applies when they act within the scope of their license and follow the protocols of their medical control authority. Their medical directors, authorizing physicians, hospitals, and employing agencies are also covered, unless the conduct amounts to gross negligence or willful misconduct.3Michigan Legislature. MCL Section 333.20965
Where the Protection Ends
Every Michigan Good Samaritan statute draws the same line. Ordinary negligence is covered. Gross negligence and willful and wanton misconduct are not.
Ordinary negligence is a mistake a reasonable person might have made. You perform CPR and crack a rib because you push too hard. That is protected. Gross negligence is conduct that shows reckless disregard for the person’s safety, so extreme it looks nearly intentional. Attempting a tracheotomy with a pocket knife because you saw it on television would likely cross that line.
Willful and wanton misconduct goes further. It is deliberate indifference to obvious risk — knowing your actions could cause serious harm and proceeding anyway. Either one strips away the immunity and exposes the rescuer to a lawsuit for damages.2Michigan Legislature. MCL Section 691.1501 – Liability of Certain Persons for Emergency Care
The practical takeaway is simple. Honest mistakes made while genuinely trying to help are protected. Reckless conduct is not.
Calling 911 for an Overdose
Michigan has a separate Good Samaritan provision for drug overdoses that works differently from the emergency care statutes. Under MCL 333.7403(3) and MCL 333.7404(3), a person who seeks medical help for someone overdosing is protected from prosecution for possessing a small, personal-use amount of controlled substances, as long as the evidence of possession was discovered because help was sought.4Michigan Legislature. MCL Section 333.7404
The protection runs in both directions. The person overdosing is covered if someone brings them in for treatment. The person who called for help or accompanied them is also covered for their own personal-use possession.
The limits matter:
- The amount of drugs must be consistent with that individual’s personal use. Courts decide this case by case rather than by a fixed quantity.
- The immunity covers only possession charges discovered because help was sought. It does not block prosecution for dealing, manufacturing, or any unrelated offense.
- Evidence of other crimes found during the response can still be used against you.
Michigan also provides separate protection under the Administration of Opioid Antagonists Act for government agencies and employees who administer naloxone in good faith to someone experiencing an opioid overdose. That protection is civil and criminal and ends at gross negligence.
If you witness an overdose, call for help first and sort out the legal details later. That is what the statute was written to let you do.
What the Law Does Not Do
A few assumptions about the Good Samaritan law in Michigan need to be corrected directly.
These statutes provide civil immunity. They are a shield against lawsuits for money damages, not against criminal charges. If your conduct during an emergency crosses into criminal behavior, the Good Samaritan laws offer no protection. The drug overdose provisions are the one exception, and even those cover only specific possession charges.
The laws do not require you to help. You will not face legal consequences for deciding not to intervene. Michigan is not one of the handful of states that imposes a duty to rescue.
They also do not cover an emergency you caused. If your negligence created the dangerous condition and you then try to help, the Good Samaritan statute is unlikely to shield you from liability for creating the problem in the first place.
And once you do start helping, think twice before walking away. Abandonment is a separate legal problem. If someone else might have stepped in but held back because you were already acting, leaving the person worse off than you found them can create liability the statute will not cover. For healthcare professionals, this is a particularly real risk if they begin treatment and leave before someone with comparable training takes over. For bystanders, the rule of thumb is to keep going with CPR until paramedics arrive or you physically cannot continue.