ABSTRACT
The new laws grant new powers to emergency managers but, with those powers come legal limitations. Government officials should know these limitations. If a public official or company employee is negligent, the individual and the employer may be responsible for paying money damages to the injured party. State officials, in contrast, generally can be liable for negligence only insofar as a state statute gives consent to being sued for negligence or insofar as court decisions on sovereign immunity abrogate this immunity. Local officials, as a general matter, are liable for negligence except insofar as a state statute confers immunity. Ministerial decisions by agency personnel are those involving administrative details, routine functions, implementation of policy, and limited flexibility, usually at the operational level. Public opinion and court rulings have shifted away from immunity, reasoning that it is unfair to foist the burden of government mistakes on innocent victims, since government is able to pass the costs along to the taxpayers.
