Peril

Peril

Imminent peril, or imminent danger, is a noun for the legal concept of unacceptable conditions urgently needing corrective action. The principle allows people to act instinctively, without concern of recrimination. The actions are exempt from ordinary standards of reasonable care when the action meets a sudden and urgent need. For example, a person doing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on a victim in cardiac arrest needn't fear if in so doing he or she breaks some of the victim's ribs. Because of the doctrine, the person will not be liable for the injuries; as it was done to meet an urgent need. Imminent peril is "certain danger, immediate, and impending; menacingly close at hand, and threatening." In many states, a mere necessity for quick action does not constitute an emergency within the doctrine of imminent peril, where the situation calling for the action is one which should reasonably have been anticipated and which the person whose action is called for should have been prepared to meet; the doctrine of imminent peril does not excuse one who has brought about the peril by her own negligence.