Emergency management lawyers flourish

Published 16 May 2007

Jurisdictional and public health laws challenge attorneys general; a new check-list to help cities and counties take stock

It is well known that the law trails behind technology and current events. Fortunately, it never lingers too long. Consider as an example the recent growth of emergency management laws, which takes into account public health law, interjuristictional issues, and budgeting concerns. “You can’t predict every type of emergency,” said Johns Hopkins professor James Hodge. “You have to be ready to resolve legal issues in real time. You have to be able to do interpretation of statutes.” Quite often, neighboring states may have differing interpretations of who qualifies as an emergency official or under what conditions quarantines can be imposed, and the inability to understand these laws may make emergency coordination diffficult.

Many states have attorneys general to help out, of course, but few at the municipal level have sufficient resources to manage the issue from the bottom up. To remedy the problem, Mark Newbold, a deputy city attorney in North Carolina, with help from the American Bar Association guide, has created a checklist to help his colleagues take stock of their situation. Among the questions to ask include: Are mutual aid/interagency agreements in place and current? How is a state of emergency established in this jurisdiction? Who is authorized to enforce a quarantine? What are the specific grants of power to law enforcement during a state of emergency? “We’ve got to get people talking before a complex situation arises,” said Newbold. “It’s ludicrous during an event to have a lawyer scrambling, looking through law books. Decisions have to be made in real time.”