Good Samaritan law

First Aid & CPR Washington

The Good Samaritan: compassion and protection

Drawn from the Bible (Luke 10:25-37), the parable of the Good Samaritan tells of a traveller left for dead who is rescued by a stranger that tends to him and sees to his care. Beyond its religious context, it carries a universal message: the moral duty to help others in danger, through compassion and altruism.

Inspired by this principle, many so-called Good Samaritan laws have been enacted around the world to protect those who assist in good faith during an emergency from legal action. The exact scope of that protection, however, varies from one jurisdiction to another: here is what the law applicable to your region provides.

Statute citation

Governing act RCW 4.24.300 (immunity from liability for certain types of medical care).
Scope of protection Any person, including a volunteer provider of emergency services, who without compensation renders emergency care at the scene of an emergency is not liable for civil damages, other than acts or omissions constituting gross negligence or willful or wanton misconduct.
Duty to rescue No
AED liability protection Protected
Statute RCW 70.54.310 governs acquisition and use of semiautomatic external defibrillators and grants immunity; the requirements of RCW 70.54.310 do not apply to a person using an AED in an emergency as a Good Samaritan under RCW 4.24.300. The exception applies for gross negligence or willful or wanton misconduct.
No legal duty to rescue AED protection

Your protection under the law

In Washington State, RCW 4.24.300 protects any person — a volunteer responder included — who without pay renders emergency care at the scene of an emergency. No civil liability can follow, apart from acts or omissions amounting to gross negligence or willful, wanton misconduct. Better still: RCW 70.54.310 makes clear that its defibrillator requirements do not apply to a Good Samaritan who uses an AED in an emergency.

No duty to act, but every reason to

Washington State doesn't require its residents to help: stepping in remains a personal choice. But the law goes so far as to spare the Good Samaritan the formalities usually demanded of an AED program, so that nothing slows the hands-on effort in mid-emergency. The message is crisp: when every second counts, what's expected of you is action, not paperwork.

Why training matters

If Washington's law sweeps aside even the formalities to make room for action, you still have to know how to act. Cardiac arrest isn't solved by goodwill alone: it demands effective compressions and a defibrillator switched on without delay. A CPR and first-aid course gives you exactly those reflexes, as useful on a Seattle street as on a Cascades trail. Where the law has done everything to free you, preparation does the rest — and it's preparation that saves.