Good Samaritan law
First Aid & CPR Arkansas
The Good Samaritan: compassion and protection
Drawn from the Bible (Luke 10:25-37), the parable of the Good Samaritan tells of a traveller left for dead who is rescued by a stranger that tends to him and sees to his care. Beyond its religious context, it carries a universal message: the moral duty to help others in danger, through compassion and altruism.
Inspired by this principle, many so-called Good Samaritan laws have been enacted around the world to protect those who assist in good faith during an emergency from legal action. The exact scope of that protection, however, varies from one jurisdiction to another: here is what the law applicable to your region provides.
Your protection under the law
Under Ark. Code Ann. § 17-95-101, a person who in good faith and without compensation renders emergency care—acting as an ordinary, reasonably prudent person would—is protected from liability, and that protection ends only at gross negligence or willful, wanton misconduct. Arkansas carries the same Good Samaritan shield to defibrillators through Ark. Code Ann. § 20-13-1305 (part of the subchapter beginning at § 20-13-1301), so that using an AED in an emergency is covered on the very same terms.
No duty to act, but every reason to
In Arkansas the law asks nothing of the passerby—there is no duty to rescue, and stepping in is purely a matter of choice. Choose to help honestly, though, and the statute protects your effort, defibrillator included, exactly as the code spells out. No one should hesitate at a person's side out of fear of a lawsuit that the law has already foreclosed.
Why training matters
A heart in arrest loses roughly ten percent of its chance of recovery with every passing minute, which means the outcome is usually settled in the small window before an ambulance can reach a driveway or a country road. In that window the bystander is the first link in the chain of survival—no one else is close enough to matter yet. Arkansas has already taken the legal risk away; training is what takes away the hesitation, replacing "I wasn't sure what to do" with hands that already know. Learn it once, and you may never need it—but if you do, someone goes home because you did.