In Home Star Bank & Financial Services v. Murphy, a salaried emergency room doctor who responded to a Code Blue in the hospital, asserted that he was immune from suit for medical malpractice under Illinois’s Good Samaritan Act. The trial court granted him immunity, but the appellate court reversed, holding that the doctor was not immune under the Act because he received a salary for his services, and thus did not provide emergency care “without fee,” as the Act requires. The Illinois Supreme Court granted the doctor’s motion for leave to appeal, in which he argues that the Act should apply to this case because the patient was not billed for the doctor’s services.

CCL filed an amicus curiae brief for the American Association for Justice (AAJ) in this case. The brief, written by CCL’s Valerie M. Nannery, and filed in support of the plaintiffs, provides the court a national perspective on Good Samaritan immunity laws and the purpose of the laws. The purpose of the Good Samaritan immunity is to encourage volunteer physicians to provide emergency care even when they have no duty to act. Illinois is an outlier in the United States because the courts do not inquire into whether the doctor who provided emergency care had a duty to do so before they determine whether the Good Samaritan Act applies. AAJ’s brief expresses the concern that granting immunity to a doctor who had a duty to act merely because he does not bill the patient for the emergency care would set a precedent that would spread to other jurisdictions with statutes similar to Illinois’s. The brief encourages the Illinois Supreme Court to hold that doctors who have a duty to provide emergency care cannot be shielded from liability by the Good Samaritan Act, and that doctors cannot escape liability for negligent emergency care by simply not billing the patient.