China news update

I know it’s often said that Americans sue all the time but I feel China is ahead on that score.

        Recently, a Chinese father sued a doctor of an emergency room where the man’s son was admitted. The doctor was being sued for the cost of the pants that he had cut off in his hurry to get to the boy’s wound. Hopefully this kind of lawsuit will disappear in time.

Helping that to happen will be the new Good Samaritan law that China recently passed that went into effect on October 1^st. The new law protects both Chinese and foreigners who voluntarily offer emergency assistance to others who are (or believe they are) injured, ill, in danger, or otherwise incapacitated, from facing civil liability action if victims come to harm.

Anyone familiar with China knows that the first thing you learn as a foreigner is to not offer help if you see someone in need due to the fact that that someone is likely to turn around and sue you for causing their accident even if you weren’t there. The main case that Chinese courts had on this issue used this reasoning: nobody would have stopped to help unless they felt responsible for the accident. Hopefully the new law will allow people to help others again in China without fear of getting sued.

Here is an article that goes more into details: http://www.atimes.com/article/good-samaritan-law-six-years-death-little-yue-yue/