Will I Be Sued For Doing First Aid?

Updated February, 2022.

Can I be sued for giving First Aid to a casualty?

This is a question that we get asked a lot, so we thought it was worth answering in-depth to allay some fears.

Before we start it is worth pointing out that this has not been written by a legal expert, and therefore cannot suggest that this article is anything more than guidance. It is based on our best understanding of the situation in the UK at present. In researching this post, there are very few cases on which to base any judgement; various scenarios are discussed and the words ‘probably’ and ‘maybe’ are used a lot when referring to the outcome of an imagined scenario in court.

If you are reading this as an expert in the law, with a definitive answer, please get in touch with any technical clarifications you feel are appropriate or helpful, and we shall forward them on.

Let’s look at a couple of situations first. Duty of Care and Bystander First Aid:

Duty Of Care and First Aid provision

You have a Duty of Care if you ‘invite’ people to come along to your club, activity or event.

First Aiders who are qualified due to a duty of care for others have a responsibility to perform first aid on someone who requires assistance, and who is within their care. This may be the colleague of a first aider in the workplace, a club football player who is being ‘cared for’ by their coach, an outdoor instructor’s client, or Forest School participant.

It is worth noting that clubs assume a duty of care when organising activities. Therefore, voluntary leaders, or coaches in this situation also have a duty of care towards other participants in the activity.

Most employers, companies or sole traders should have , or consider having, adequate indemnity insurance for their activities. Appropriate levels and type of first aid training plus the numbers of first aiders in a business is a factor in the level of insurance required.

If you believe you are in a ‘Duty of Care’ situation regularly and do not feel comfortable, join us on a course.

Bystander First Aid

A first aider who witnesses an incident outwith their specific duty of care is under no obligation to perform first aid on that casualty, provided they did not cause the incident in the first place. If they choose to voluntarily perform first aid on a casualty in this situation, they assume a duty of care to that casualty and accept responsibility for the care of them.

Firstly, you need to understand where your particular duty of care is relevant and when you have responsibility. This should be covered by your organisation or employer’s guidelines or procedures.

Secondly, there is no obligation to treat someone outwith your duty of care if you don’t feel comfortable doing so.

Giving First Aid treatment – the difference between a conscious, unconscious casualty or one without ‘capability’.

Firstly, we must act in the best interests of the casualty. This affords the casualty the right to refuse treatment by a first aider, if they are presumed “to have the capacity to make their own decisions unless proved otherwise” [Mental Capacities Act 2005]

This is why we must always ask permission of a conscious casualty before we treat them in any way, as if they do not consent, we can go no further.

If a casualty is unresponsive however, we can imply consent to treating any life-threatening injuries or illnesses only, as this would be considered to be in the best interests of the casualty.

Assuming we either have or have assumed, consent. Your actions should not be negligent, you should only do what you have been trained to do, and what is reasonable in the circumstances.

Case study: An example that we often use in this discussion is that a qualified first aider is taught to carry out some potentially damaging techniques, such as rolling an unresponsive casualty into a recovery position in order to maintain their open, draining airway. Lots of students question the risk of damage to the neck or back during this procedure, particularly if the casualty has suffered a traumatic injury. They are right to be concerned. It is a reasonable risk to take however, as without rolling the casualty over correctly, the airway is at risk of obstruction (through fluid build up, or by their tongue), and that is much more immediately threatening to life.

If the first aider’s intervention were considered negligent, however, they would be liable for damages if their actions worsened the existing injury, or caused the injury that would not otherwise have happened.

Your duty as a first aider, whether implied by moral standards (as a bystander) or legal (as required in Duty of Care), is to perform first aid within the limits of your knowledge and training, call 999/112 and take care of casualty, yourself and others until that help arrives.

What is Negligence?

Negligence, “is a failure to exercise the appropriate and or ethical ruled care expected to be exercised amongst specified circumstances” [Encyclopedia Britannica. Meriam Webster. 2011]

In our scenario above, not rolling the unresponsive casualty over when you heard gurgling whilst monitoring their breathing; could be considered as ‘failure to exercise the appropriate care’.

In another example, administering CPR on a casualty who was unresponsive, but obviously effectively breathing, could indeed cause them injury. This too could be considered negligent.

Is there a Good Samaritan law in the UK?

No, not yet, although some recent cases have hinted at us moving towards this.

What is a Good Samaritan Law? In some countries (France, Germany and others) have a legal obligation to assist someone in distress as long as they are not putting themselves at risk. To do nothing is a criminal act in these countries.

Case study: In the UK, as far as we know, there has only been one case where someone was prosecuted and subsequently jailed for NOT assisting someone in distress. This case involved the defendant not phoning 999, not attempting any rescue and not providing assistance. As part of the legal process, it was decided the defendant did indeed have some duty of care over the casualty, who in fact died as a result of their inaction. You can read more about this case here and more on the legal issues around it here.

What is ‘Reasonable’ in the circumstances?

This is a phrase that is the basis of Common Law, which has been developed over centuries and is based on a system of precedent, whereby previous similar cases are consulted and used to provide guidance as to the court’s decision.

What the reasonable person would do? In the case of first aid, this might take into account the level of training of the first aider, the context of the emergency, and the first aiders’ ability to make the correct decision in an emergency situation, amongst other things. What a medical professional would do is expected to be different from a trained first aider or an untrained member of the public.

As a First Aider, making that correct decision under the stress of an incident is all about good training – and keeping your skills refreshed.

Best Practice in First Aid

The best way to avoid personal liability is to follow good practice to the best of your abilities. You can do this several ways:

1. If you’ve never done a first aid course or need to refresh , Book a course here if you are feeling nervous! Get skilled and get confident with our wide range of hands on and practical first aid courses for all sectors.
2. Keep your existing first aid skills refreshed by regularly checking in to our YouTube channel with over 40 first aid videos or our series of blogs on first aid topics that go into topics in more detail.
3. Keep a record of any Incident you deal with. (In a work situation this is a legal obligation) You can download our free Casualty Monitoring Form here. It works both as a basic incident recording form and an ongoing Casualty Monitoring form. (A complete Incident or Accident form must also be signed if required in a workplace setting)
4. For further information, the Resuscitation Council (UK) have a useful and interesting publication that you can download here: “CPR, AEDs and the Law” covers the obligations and responsibilities of qualified First Aiders as well as members of the public.

Additional information from an Expert

Thanks to Joanne Caffrey Expert Witness who kindly got in touch to give a legal context to our guide above. Joanne’s full article can be found on her website here

Dear Co-operative,
In response to your publication, I am an Expert Witness for court cases concerning Safer Custody and challenging behaviour in schools, but this also looks at issues of medical and first aid provision to prisoners in police or prison custody and children. I am also a tutor for university degree courses.

Last year I had published the attached article and it was printed in a spring 2017 legal magazine looking at the hierarchy of legislation.

There are 2 main areas you have to prove in order to ‘sue’ someone/organisation and those 2 areas are: That the act done/ not done was GROSSLY negligent outside of any reasonable parameters of options and that the BUT FOR test then was achieved.
The BUT FOR test concerns the GROSSLY negligent act.

Example:
In a case I advised on concerning a child breaking their arm at school and the parents threatening to sue the school for negligence in first aid for not calling an ambulance.

Basic question – was the arm broken by the school’s activities? NO.
It was broken in the playtime when the child was in free activity.

Did the staff know it was broken when the child fell? NO. They knew it was hurt and instantly gave reassurance to the child and rang the parent who came for the child to go to the hospital.

Did the parent recognise it was broken? NO.

Is it a mandatory requirement to call an ambulance every time a child falls over and hurts themselves? NO

Would most other schools have rung an ambulance for this case? NO.

The BUT FOR test is then the issue BUT FOR the school’s actions or lack of actions would the arm have not broken? NO.

Whether or not the school called an ambulance the arm would still have been broken. The school were not accused of causing the break.

Joanne Caffrey, Expert Witness Safer Custody, Managing Challenging Behaviour & Use of force.

Joanne also assures us that the ‘BUT FOR’ test is the same in Scottish Law as it is in English Law. 

In summary – can you be sued for first aid?

It is very unlikely if you carry out first aid to your best ability and to your level of knowledge and training. Keep your skills, confidence and competence up to date and take care of yourself, your casualty and others in the vicinity.