Hypo at 1:18 AM

One of the harder things that a law student has to get used to is the suspension of judgment while reading a case or legal rule. When you read a case there is a certain set of facts that are the reason the case is where it is at. Sometimes the legal rule addresses those facts and sometimes they loosely follow those facts in order make an easy rule for someone to follow. The problem that arises is the hypotheticals that can come from them.

If someone is being beaten and you see them then you do not have a duty to help them.

A pretty simple rule that many can agree is not a bad rule. If someone is being hit with a bat in front of me then there is no legal duty to help them and in turn I do not get hit with a bat. While it might be morally a good thing to help that person it is not a legal duty.

Now to make it a hypothetical: If a baby is face down in a pool of water and you are not related to the baby nor have special relationship to the baby (such as babysitter or guardian) then you do not have to take it out of the puddle.

Welcome to Law School.

::The above hypothetical is one of the reasons I love the law::
cowards die many times before their deaths;
the valiant never taste of death but once.
of all the wonders that I yet have heard,
ot seems to me most strange that men should fear,
seeing that death, a necessary end,
will come when it will come.
~julius caesar~