SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Legal Newsline)-Good Samaritans in California are now protected from civil liability

Schwarzenegger shields Good Samaritans from lawsuits
BY CHRIS RIZO
Arnold Schwarzenegger (R)
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Legal Newsline)-Good Samaritans in California are now protected from civil liability, under legislation signed this week by Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The two new laws, which took effect immediately, were drafted in response to a state Supreme Court decision late last year that said state law only partially protected those who voluntarily act as Good Samaritans from possible negligence lawsuits.

"Now Good Samaritans have no reason to hesitate to responsibly help someone in an emergency out of fear that they might be sued," said state Assemblyman Mike Feuer, D-Los Angeles.

His legislation -- Assembly Bill 83 -- affords protections to anyone assisting at the scene of an emergency, regardless of whether they are trained personnel, unless they act recklessly.

The bill, which passed the Legislature unanimously, was supported by the Civil Justice Coalition of California, a tort reform group.

"This legislation encourages Californians to look out for each other at a time when public resources are all too scarce," Feuer said. "I'm proud of the broad coalition that came together to make this common sense law possible."

A second civil liability-related bill - this one by Republican Sen. John Benoit of Riverside -- expands legal protections for providing any emergency care. Senate Bill 39 shields volunteer workers who perform disaster services.

"Good Samaritans should never again have to second-guess the consequences of helping," said Benoit, a former Highway patrol commander. "Thankfully, the chilling effect that last December's court ruling had on people willing to help in times of emergency has been drastically diminished because of this law's immediate implementation."

In December the state's high court in a controversial 4-3 ruling found that California law protects only medical professionals from civil damages when they attempt to care for someone in an emergency situation.

The case followed a 2004 Halloween night crash in which one woman pulled a co-worker from a crashed vehicle. Her rough handling of the victim, who suffered spinal injury, is believed to have contributed to the victim's paralysis. The paralyzed woman then sued her co-worker who tried to help her.

In 1980, the California Legislature enacted a law that states "no person who in good faith, and not for compensation, renders emergency care at the scene of an emergency shall be liable for any civil damages results from any act or omission."

From Legal Newsline: Reach staff reporter Chris Rizo at chrisrizo@legalnewsline.com.

CERT-Los Angeles CERT refresher - 8/16/09

CERT Los Angeles is holding a refresher on Sunday, August 16th. CERT began in Los Angeles in 1985, so they've got quite good at this.

This is open to all CERT Graduates (even those outside Los Angeles).

Please go to this web-site to register, if interested:

You will need to register, including faxing down your Ojai Valley CERT certificate.

http://www.cert-la.com/refresher.htm

The next CERT refresher will be held on Sunday, August 16, 2009, at Fire Station 88 in Sherman Oaks.

The drill is open to all graduates of CERT training programs.

Come practice and refresh the skills you learned during the CERT Basic Training.

Get more information and sign up now at http://www.cert-la.com/refresher.htm

Linda Underwood for www.cert-la.com

Upcoming Ham Radio Licensing in The Ojai Valley!!

Calabasas to Ventura to Santa Paula and now to The Ojai Valley...

When: Saturday August 29th 2009
10:00 am – 2:00 pm (Sign in, Study & Snacks)
2:00 pm – 3:00 pm (Exam)

Where: Oak View Community Resource Center
555 Mahoney Avenue
Oak View, California

Sponsors: Ojai Valley CERT
Ojai Valley Amateur Radio Club
Ventura Harbor CERT Group

Contact: Sean Kellythorne
kellythornes@yahoo.com
805-701-6556

Cost: $25.00 covers snack, expenses and the $4.00 Exam Fee

Registration is limited. Pre-registration required.
Reserve your space now! Mail a $25.00 check to:
Sean Kellythorne
133 Don Felipe Way, Ojai CA 93023
We email you all the study materials on receipt of your check.

NYT article on Ham Licensing in Calabasas

Kudos to Norm Goodkin for pulling of another very successful Ham Licensing Class -- for 75 teens.

Other kids are consumed with cellphones, text messages and Tweets, e-mails and Facebook postings.

But 75 teenagers in Calabasas have become licensed amateur radio operators and hope to lead a new wave of shortwave enthusiasts.


http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-teen-radio25-2009jul25,0,1740751.story

Fun with moulage (disaster make-up) in Fillmore

On Saturday July 18, the City of Fillmore Fire Department hosted a simulated mass causality incident at the El Dorado Mobile Park. The goal of this event was to provide members of the El Dorado Block Captain Program the opportunity to practice basic first aid and triage skills they learned about during a previous weeks training.

The training scenario included a magnitude 7.0 earthquake triggering the collapse of the community clubhouse located within the mobile home park. Approximately 25 victims were placed inside the clubhouse tangled amongst various obstacles and debris. To add to the realism the windows of the building were blacked out, the lights in the building shut off and theatrical smoke added to the area – all to simulate post-earthquake conditions.



http://www.fillmoregazette.com/community/el-dorado-residents-take-part-disaster-drill

Priority Pre-Registration for Certainly CERT Exercise open Aug 24th

The Certainly CERT Exercise on November 7th will open up for priority pre-registration between August 24th and August 30th. They will only accept 20 participants from each CERT Group (for example, Ojai Valley CERT). After August 30th, the registration will open up again and cap at 250 registrants.

I will keep this blog posted when the Ventura County Fire Department opens up the web-link for registration.

We are looking for a good turnout (20 registrants) and representation from The Ojai Valley for CERT graduates that want to participate in the exercise.

Please note that if you are planning to participate as support staff (victim, Exercise Supervisor, etc) then there will be a separate registration for that.

Details:

The priority pre-registration for Op CC is August 24th - Aug 30. I encourage all our members to enroll on August 24th to ensure that they get a slot for the Op CC exercise. Each area is limited to 20 slots.

After August 30th there will be open enrollment for anyone. Enrollment will remain open until 250 are enrolled. I recommend that our CERT folks who do not get enrolled during the closed enrollment week that they enroll on August 31 anytime after 12 midnight.

This will be a great experience for those participating, so make sure you get enrolled early.

For those participating in support roles you will be enrolled as CERT support personnel and not included in the 20 person restriction for participants.

An option is to volunteer for a support activity. There are a number of openings still available:

Victims - see what it is like from the other side. Must be willing to moan. 50 needed
Communicators - ACS and ham licenses require. Willing to listen. 5 needed
Parking personnel - help park cars, hand out lunches (eat as well). 15 needed
Team leader - Fire suppression, Can put out fires lead a group and keep cool 1 needed
Gophers - get stuff, return stuff, move stuff, find stuff, not lose stuff, 10 - 15 needed
Assistant Safety Officers - make sure exercises are safe. Be willing to work all day. 5 needed.
Altogether we will need at least a hundred support personnel to make this exercise work.

Every one will get lunch and there will be plenty of water. There will be no shortage of work so you will not get bored.

Major pay off - learn a lot of things, meet a lot of fellow CERT folks, and have a good time.

For more information and how to get involved contact your CERT Neighborhood Area Coordinator right away.

Sean Kellythorne
Chief Planner for Operation Certainly CERT
November 7th 2009
0800 - 1700
Ventura County Fire Department
Regional Training Center
Camarillo Airport, Camarillo.
805-701-6556

2009 National Conference on Community Preparedness (August 9 - 13)

Take a look at this document to see the list of speakers and agenda items.

Looks like Citizen Corps (which includes CERT) is really being taken serious by FEMA and other agencies.

Congratulations to Roger Kehr and his team from Cottonwood, Utah for being one of the finalists within the Collaborative Preparedness category. We've shared many stories and ideas over last year.

Roger will be chatting with Craig Fugate (FEMA Administrator) about our OK Drill.

http://www.iaem.com/documents/NCCP_Program_final.pdf