§ 78B.003.Limited Liability for Refusal to Provide Wellness Check

The operative provision, in three escalating parts.

A first responder is not required to perform a wellness check. A first responder is not liable for damages incurred from the refusal to perform one. And a court shall immediately dismiss any action asserting a claim described by Subsection (b).

The third subsection is the unusual one. Most liability protections operate as a defence, established through motion practice or at trial. This directs the court to immediately dismiss, which makes the protection procedural as well as substantive.

Only a handful of provisions in this code are drafted that way, and the effect is that a claim of this kind ends at the outset rather than after litigation.

The first subsection establishes there is no duty, which is what makes the rest follow. A claim for failing to do something requires a duty to do it, and the section says there is none.

The rationale is that first responders answer emergencies, and a wellness check on a person in a secure facility with its own supervising office is not one. Resources diverted to answering unlimited requests are resources unavailable for actual calls.

The next section then supplies the appropriate destination for such a request.