State Liability Laws for Charitable Organizations and Volunteers
Liability Protection for Volunteers and Charitable Organizations: An Overview Good Samaritan Laws. Volunteer Protection. Volunteer Immunity. Liability Limitation. Shield Laws. Charitable Immunity. These terms, which have significant, as well as subtle distinctions, have been used to describe laws that protect people and organizations in the nonprofit sector from claims, lawsuits and allegations of wrongdoing. Although numerous researchers, legal authorities and other interested persons have written about these subjects during the past 20 years, a tremendous degree of confusion remains about whether volunteers and nonprofits can be sued and held liable for negligent acts. More specifically, managers and leaders of nonprofit organizations continue to wonder:
• Can we be sued? • Can we be held liable? • Are there laws that limit our liability because we are nonprofits or volunteers?
Each year the Nonprofit Risk Management Center receives countless calls from nonprofit managers describing actual or hypothetical situations in which the nonprofit is or could be embroiled.