Chapter 5: Legal Responsibilities And Liabilities

Front 1

What are the major sources of laws in North America?

Back 1

Federal and state constitutions which provide judicial decisions and legislative actions, and Government agencies

Front 2

Federal/State Constitutions

Back 2

Laws of the land. Define the power of each branch of government

Front 3

3 Branches of Government

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Legislative - creates laws

Executive - implements, administers and enforces laws

Judicial - interprets laws

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Judicial Decisions

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Common law (based on tradition, custom, usage, and decisions of the judicial courts). These laws are developed by judicial decisions rather than legislative action.

Front 5

Legislative actions

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Statutory laws referred to as statutes or ordinances

Front 6

Government agencies

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Created by statutory laws and empowered to create and enforce rules and regulations to implement the legislation for which they are responsible. These rules and regulations are known as administrative laws.

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7 classifications of laws

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Substantive, administrative, civil, criminal, statutory, procedural, common

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Substantive

Back 8

Deals with actual issues by establishing principles, defining duties and obligations, and creating and designing the limitations of rights within a society. These laws are established by legislative and government agencies and constitutions.

Front 9

Procedural

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Defines the Judiciary rules or mechanisms used to enforce substantive laws. They are established by legislative actions and constitutions.

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Common

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Bases laws in the US on English common law which was spread throughout the world by British colonizers. These began as traditional or customary laws but many have been adopted and codified into statutory law.

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Statutory

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Pertains to laws and acted by legislative bodies of government. Example: OSHA, EPA, EEOC, IRS

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Administrative

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These are laws created by government agencies and used to enforce and implement statutory law.

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Criminal

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These laws protect society as a whole from wrongful actions. They are established by legislative action at all levels of government and are in the tradition of common and civil laws.

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Civil

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Also known as non-criminal laws. Define relationships between individuals or groups and helps to resolve disputes between parties. These are established by legislative action rather than judicial decisions.

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Liability

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A legal obligation or responsibility. Forms of liability include criminal, civil, tort, negligence, and personal.

Front 16

Criminal liability

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Criminal laws are intended to protect members of society from acts that would place their lives and or property in serious jeopardy.

Malfeasance-criminal act that applies to public servant.

Front 17

Civil liability

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The basis for all civil law is the fact that anyone including individuals and corporations and even convicts in prison have the right to sue anyone else.

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Tort liability

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A civil wrong or injury. The main purpose of a tort action is to seek payment for property damaged or destroyed personal injuries or lost income.

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For a valid tort action the following elements must exist:

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Defendant must owe a legal duty to the plaintiff

There must be a breach of that duty.

The breach of duty must be a proximate cause of the accident or injury that resulted.

The plaintiff must have suffered damages as a result.

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Negligence liability

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Negligence is a breach of a legal duty.

There are two ways in which one can be judged negligent: wrongful performance (misfeasance) or The omission of performance when some act should've been performed and was not (nonfeasance).

Front 21

Personal liability

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Everyone has an obligation to conduct themselves in a manner that does not cause harm or injury to another person.

Front 22

Fireman rule

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In most cases property owners are immune from liability for a firefighters injuries suffered while fighting a fire or controlling an emergency caused by the property owners negligence.

Front 23

The Code of Federal Regulations (CFR)

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The codification of the general and permit rules established by the executive departments and agencies of the federal government.

Front 24

OSHA regulations for which company officers are responsible are contained in...

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Title 29 of the CFR

Front 25

Which NFPA standard is The basis for the two in two out rule?

Back 25

NFPA 1500 - Standard on fire department occupational safety and health program

Front 26

Title 40 of the CFR contains the EPA regulations for what?

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Protecting the environment. These also deal with how hazardous substances are stored and shipped.

Front 27

What are the four primary areas of employment discrimination?

Back 27

Disparate treatment, adverse impact, sexual harassment, and reasonable accommodation

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Disparate treatment

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Treating an applicant or employee differently than those of another race gender or religion etc.

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Adverse impact

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Occurs when an employer uses a test that is initially not intended to discriminate but adversely affects members of one protected class.

Front 30

Fair labor standards act of 1938

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Guaranteed that workers in the private sector would be paid overtime at a time and one half salary rate if they worked more than 40 hours in one week. Did not apply to state and local employees until 1985

Front 31

What is the FLSA workweek set at for police and firefighters?

Back 31

43 hours for police and 53 hours for firefighters.

Front 32

Most of the national consensus standards that relate to fire and EMS activities are developed by...

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NFPA, ASTM international (ASTM) underwriters laboratories Inc. (UL), international code Council (ICC), US Department of Defense ( DoD)

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ANSI - American National Standards Institute

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A private nonprofit organization that administers and coordinates the voluntary standardization and conformity assessment system.

Front 34

ASTM international

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A consensus-based standards writing and testing organization.

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Underwriters laboratories Inc. (UL)

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Founded in 1894. An independent not for profit product safety testing and certification organization