Med Mal News

With bipartisan support and no active opposition, New Jersey's legislators moved swiftly early this year to undo what a court had done with its decision in Murray v. Plainfield Rescue Squad, 210 N.J. 581. That decision held that New Jersey's law immunizing officers and members of rescue squads from liability when “providing intermediate life support services” in good faith does not extend to cover the squads themselves. By holding that N.J.S.A. 26:2K-29 immunizes only “officers or members” of rescue squads administering intermediate life support services (including cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), defibrillation and cardiac monitoring), the decision left rescue squads, as entities, open to lawsuit. Another law on the books does offer immunity to these squads, but only when they are rendering “advanced life support services,” such as trauma care and intravenous therapy. Herb Conaway Jr., D-Burlington, a co-sponsor of the bill, said in January that N.J.S.A. 26:2K-29's exclusion of rescue squads appeared to be inadvertent, and “[w]e're going to correct that, and make it clear to the court this Legislature's desires and make sure that those volunteer agencies that are doing, at low cost, a great service … can continue to function without threat of lawsuit.”