WORDS MATTER *Firehouse Legal blog posts provide information only, and are not legal advice. For specific legal advice contact your attorney. No seriously, contact them, they’ll be happy to hear from you.* The decision to terminate resuscitative efforts in the field is never an easy one.  When you couple the emotionally charged atmosphere of a patient being beyond your assistance with the (sometimes) unpredictable reactions from bystanders and family, tensions may run high.  If uncertainty exists as to the legal standing for terminating efforts, the situation may become more precario ..read more

It Can Be More Complex Than You Expect *Firehouse Legal blog posts provide information only, and are not legal advice. For specific legal advice contact your attorney. No seriously, contact them, they’ll be happy to hear from you.* Vacancies on a Board of Directors between elections happen frequently.  The terms are long (6 years), and a lot can happen in that span of time—Directors move out of District, kids grow up, priorities change, or people even pass away. To handle these circumstances the legislature provided a mechanism to appoint board members to vacant positions, which is contai ..read more

Laws, in general, do not remotely resemble “plain english” and are therefore very difficult to navigate. While individual laws may be intended to “stand alone” and address a specific concern, the courts have pretty uniformly stated that everything must be taken in context–so if the legislature passes laws that contradict each other then we must find a way to reconcile the intent, function, and impact in the broader context.  It can be pretty confusing for a fire chief, which is why I do what I do.  Based on an anonymous inquiry recently, I looked into whether RSMO 561 ..read more

Looking forward to teaching the “Fire Chief’s Legal Tool Kit: Sunday only at Winter Fire School, in addition to working with Chief Brian Schaeffer and Asst. Chief Sam Persell to present “Surviving the Realities of Leading” on Saturday. Looking forward to another great MUFRTI event ..read more

After many years of work at the State legislative  level, and several unsuccessful attempts at a presumptive cancer coverage law, in 2021 the Missouri Fire Service Alliance was able to guide passage of Senate Bill 45, enabling creation of a fire fighter’s cancer benefits pool in the state. Among other provisions, the law allowed for the formation of the Missouri Fire Fighters Critical Illness Trust (mffcip.org), which is now up and running, and further seeded the Trust with an initial grant of funds to jump start the process. For the long term, the Trust will be funded by contributions f ..read more

*Firehouse Legal blog posts provide information only and are not legal advice. For specific legal advice contact your attorney. No seriously, contact them, they’ll be happy to hear from you.* In prior blogs I’ve discussed the application of FLSA rules to the fire service, and how to determine whether or not the specific hours worked exemption for fire fighters will apply to your work force. As you recall, FLSA grants a workaround because the standard “overtime after 40 hours” rules don’t work with the firefighter 24-hour work schedule—it’s a square peg in a round hole. Once you’ve determined t ..read more

ON FRIDAY, JULY 15 I’LL BE PRESENTING ANOTHER SESSION OF “THE FIRE CHIEF’S LEGAL TOOLBOX” REGISTER HERE FOR THE CONFERENCE ..read more

Another great year at the MAFPD annual conference.  I enjoyed the discussions during my “Return of the Roaring 20’s” presentation and the turnout was great! By the way, if you are a firefighter and have not had the opportunity to listen to Dr. Sarah Jahnke speak on firefighter health and well-being, you absolutely must make a point to catch one of her presentations. The research she and her colleagues are conducting right now on behalf of firefighters is mind blowing. I highly recommend seeking out and listening to what she has to say–you won’t regret it, trust me. Next up: Missouri Vall ..read more

Join me next weekend at the Lake of the Ozarks for the Missouri Association of Fire Protection Districts conference ..read more

*Firehouse Legal blog posts provide information only and are not legal advice. For specific legal advice contact your attorney. No seriously, contact them, they’ll be happy to hear from you.* Last month we dealt with a threshold question: Does the FLSA apply to the fire service? The answer, of course, was yes. The next questions in the algorithm are: Is the employee “exempt” from overtime pay, or “non-exempt”; and if non-exempt, is the employee engaged in “fire protection activities?” The exempt/non-exempt issue seems to trip people up. While the definition is straightforward, the determinatio ..read more