Volunteer Protection Act Of 1997

See: Volunteer Protection Laws.

The Volunteer Protection Act of 1997 exists to protect volunteers for being sued for things they do on behalf of nonprofit organizations. It was designed to promote volunteerism by assuring volunteers they’d be protected from tort liability.

Now, this doesn’t mean we can just claim we’re volunteering, go break into a bunch of houses, and then use the Volunteer Protection Act to keep from getting sued by our victims. What it does mean, though, is that if we’re legitimately volunteering and we make a mistake while performing our noble volunteer duties, we can’t be held liable in a civil court.

For example, let’s say we’re working in a meal kitchen for the day. Totally a cool thing to do, right? Now let’s say we accidentally serve some of our signature tomato bisque a little too hot, and a patron burns his tongue. The Volunteer Protection Act says that we can’t be held civilly liable for that mistake, since we were out there volunteering our time to try and make the world a better place. Even if we, uh...didn't.