Legal Issues
The legal issues topic contains news and information about legal issues affecting EMS personnel, agencies or departments. Find the latest news from personnel misconduct, to disciplinary and harassment cases, to malpractice lawsuits, as well as advice to prevent legal action with EMS training, documentation and management.
Navigating the shift in financial responsibility and the impact rural EMS practices and policies
EMS1, professional associations and membership groups are always looking for new writers and fresh ideas. Here’s what it takes to get started.
Ambulance services cannot afford to feed the billing department incomplete, inaccurate or misrepresented information
A judge decided to schedule three separate trials — one for the two EMSproviders, one for two police officers, and another for one officer
John Krueger has been accused of inappropriately touching two children and is on unpaid leave from the Antigo Fire Department
If you don’t know that prone positioning can cause great bodily harm or death in some patients, you don’t belong in EMS
Teaching points from the ‘malpractice or murder’ case – Part 1: Action steps for EMS leaders
Four paramedics and four EMTs resigned from CARE Ambulance’s Fairfield location, forcing leaders to call in workers from other branches
Halyna Hutchins died shortly after being wounded during rehearsals; Baldwin was pointing a pistol at Hutchins when the gun went off, killing her
Peter J. Cadigan, 50, and Peggy Finley, 45, are currently being held in the Sangamon County Jail on $1 million bonds each
The suspect was found to possess 20 guns and 4 grams of meth and had been considering stealing the fire truck and ambulance, Rochester police said
EMS providers were tending to a patient when they noticed the vehicle was missing
Christopher Biggs is working as an advanced life support training coordinator for the Maryland Fire and Rescue Institute
Office of Special Counsel: “The evidence showed many [Niagara Falls] employees — both students and instructors — on leave during the reported training courses”
Pompton Lakes VFD members were using a thermal imaging camera in the house to find the smoke source when “the home literally exploded,” officials said
EMS providers and leaders have a “duty to act” to ensure patients are treated with dignity and compassion
Nagel helped develop ALS and the country’s first paramedicine program, held leadership roles through the 1980s and was an adviser for “Emergency!”
EMS providers and leaders have a “duty to act” to ensure patients are treated with dignity and compassion
”... As frustrated as I’ve ever been on a call, I can’t fathom doing any of these things to a patient,” one commenter wrote
The airplane’s cockpit voice recorder, cockpit image recorder and other electronic components will be transported to the NTSB laboratory
When lots of red flags are waving, assess the patient, provide compassionate care and always take “I can’t breathe” seriously
“When the prosecutor sees and hears compassion, competence and professionalism, even in the face of significant errors being made, it becomes much harder to justify filing criminal charges”
The Cleveland EMS provider was in uniform at the time of the attack in 2021
The 35-year-old man died from compressional and positional asphyxia, which a coroner said was a result of being placed face down on a stretcher
The Springfield patient, who may have been experiencing hallucinations, was placed face-down on a stretcher and restrained
Rachel Peace’s husband, Gary Peace, died after suffering a heart attack; her lawsuit names 11 defendants
The suit states the city suppressed the salaries of EMS providers and says their work is substantially equal to firefighters’ work
A patient handcuffed to a stretcher reportedly kicked the responder with enough force that he was pushed out the rig’s doors and onto the ground
Deven R. Dearing used social media to initially interact with the teenager
The three people on board — a pilot, a flight paramedic and a flight nurse — are all presumed dead
The claim has prompted Town Council to rethink the contract with the Hermon Volunteer Rescue & First Aid Squad
Some of her family members wept and some walked away during the playing of a cellphone video that showed the aftermath of the 2017 incident
