  We analyze the tauonic semileptonic baryon decays $\Lambda^0_b \to
\Lambda^+_c + \tau^{-} +\bar \nu_{\tau}$ with particular emphasis on the lepton
helicity flip contributions which vanish for zero lepton masses. We calculate
the total rate, differential decay distributions, the longitudinal and
transverse polarization components of the $\Lambda^+_c$ and the $\tau^-$, and
the lepton-side forward-backward asymmetries. We use the covariant confined
quark model to provide numerical results on these observables.
