Fire Officer's Legal Handbook

Fire Officer’s Legal Handbook is a comprehensive legal guide and desk reference book intended for fire service leaders (fire chiefs, officers, union officials, and fire district board members), municipal officials (elected officials and city/town managers), emergency managers (EMS managers, EMA directors, USAR task force leaders, and members of IMAT teams) and attorneys who represent fire departments – to address the day to day legal issues that arise in the fire and emergency services.

Leaders in all walks of life face difficult challenges in today’s society, including legal challenges. Legal challenges can quickly turn into leadership challenges – and without a firm grasp of the issues a leader's ability to make good decisions can be compromised. Fire Officer’s Legal Handbook is designed to help fire and emergency services leaders understand the legal issues that confront the fire and emergency services. Fire Officer’s Legal Handbook contains down-to-earth explanations, discussions, and examples of the major legal issues that arise in every department – large and small, east coast and west coast, career and volunteer, urban and rural. Fire Officer’s Legal Handbook is thoroughly researched and heavily footnoted to provide the perspective and details that leaders need.  

Cutting edge issues in Fire Officer’s Legal Handbook include:

• Negligence and immunity

• Due process and discipline

• Internet privacy and electronic monitoring issues for department computer systems

• Searches of lockers

• HIPAA and medical confidentiality

• FLSA overtime requirements

• Patient abandonment and medical refusals

• Applicability of OSHA to fire departments

• Medical requirements for firefighters

• Uniform and grooming requirements

• Drug testing

• Scope of collective bargaining for firefighters

• Fireman’s rule

• Rescue doctrine

• Americans with Disabilities Act

• Employment discrimination and reverse discrimination

• Sexual harassment

• Fireground search and seizure

• Fire insurance

• Conflicts of interest and ethics

FOLH strikes a balance between simplicity and thoroughness - providing explanations of important legal topics in a manner that even novices to the legal world will understand, while at the same time being comprehensive enough to be of real value to attorneys.  FOLH will help facilitate discussions between fire service personnel and attorneys when the inevitable legal challenges arise.

Fire Officer's Legal Handbook includes a CDRom that contains a collection of fire related laws from all 50 states.  The CD contains over 5,000 state laws pertaining to the fire service. The laws address a variety of subjects that are important to all firefighters and emergency responders, including:

• Laws that grant civil immunity from liability to firefighters, paramedics, EMTs, and other emergency responders for line of duty actions
• Retirement and pension programs
• Disability and workers compensation laws
• Presumptive illnesses such as cancer, Hepatitis B and C, HIV, heart and lung disease
• Rights of volunteer firefighters – including the right not to be disciplined or terminated from full time employment due to being late for work due to fire or emergency.
• Mutual aid laws
• Residency laws
• Volunteer incentive programs from numerous states
• State tort claims acts
• Civil service provisions
• Laws governing hazardous materials teams, including statutory language authorizing reimbursement from responsible parties and providing immunity
• Laws governing urban search and rescue teams, and the technical specialists who make up such a team including engineers and physicians
• Laws governing fire departments, fire districts, fire protection districts, emergency medical services districts, state fire academies, and a variety of other organizations that impact the fire service.

The CD even includes every arson law in the United States !!!!!!

The CD also includes a variety of fire related cases. Some cases are included for their legal importance but a number are provided for their historical significance, including cases that arose from the following major fires and emergencies:

• The Happyland Social Club fire in New York City where 87 people died on March 25, 1990.
• The Crescent City, Illinois train derailment on July 19, 1974 that resulted in several massive BLEVE explosions that destroyed much of Crescent City.
• The Imperial Foods fire in Hamlet, NC on September 3, 1991, where twenty-five workers were killed and fifty-six were injured.
• The Dupont Plaza Hotel on December 31, 1986, where ninety-seven people perished in a tragic New Year's Eve fire.
• The Branch Davidian fire in Waco , Texas on April 19, 1993.
• The Ringling Brothers-Barnum and Baileys Circus Fire in Hartford ,Connecticut on July 6, 1944 that killed 167.
• The BLEVE in Kingman , Arizona on July 5, 1973 that killed 13 firefighters.
• The MGM Grand Hotel fire in Las Vegas , Nevada on November 21, 1980, that killed 84 and injured over 700.

Table of Contents

Side-by-side comparison with Legal Considerations

List Price: $95.95

Fire Officer's Legal Handbook may be purchased from:

Cengage Delmar Learning

Click here to order an autographed copy from the author for $75.00, shipping and taxes included.

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