Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Texas

Recommending medicine as a cashier

A lot of foreign customers come into the Wal-Mart neighborhood market store where I work. Sometimes they have trouble reading medicine bottles, and I help them know what's in it. I like to help people, and I feel sorry that they can't read the labels themselves. It's scary to think they might be buying random medicines not knowing what they do!

For example, this one gentleman asked me if a cold medicine would help him with his sore throat. I looked at the ingredients and told him that it wouldn't help him, but he should try some of the sore throat lozenges instead like Cepacol or Cepastat. He seemed grateful that I'd saved him money on buying useless medicine.

A lady asked what kind of lotion to use on her daughter's poison ivy even though we weren't sure it WAS poison ivy. She had some kind of rash though. She wouldn't be able to get to the doctor until the next day and her daughter was obviously suffering. My manager and I both recommended they give her benadryl to help stop the allergic reaction.

I'm afraid that I might be sued if they use something wrong or get the wrong thing and say I told them to use it. Can I get sued for this?


Asked on 4/27/06, 9:14 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Peter Bradie Bradie, Bradie & Bradie

Re: Recommending medicine as a cashier

Start off by telling them that you're not a pharmacist and have no medical training. But you've observed that... and then you can help them. Don't be afraid to tell them that you don't know and that they should ask the pharmacist.

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Answered on 4/28/06, 11:53 am


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