Who is Medico-legal Expert?

Medico-legal experts are doctors who investigate and testify in medico-legal cases like injury claims or medical negligence. In simple terms, medical practitioners use their knowledge and diagnosis expertise to provide medical evidence, i.e., a medico-legal report for further legal proceedings. Medico-legal report prepared by a medico-legal expert plays a vital role in the litigation process and outcome of the case; therefore, the medico-legal expert needs to have medical expertise as well as an understanding of the law. If you want to join the career of a medico-legal expert, this blog will discuss specific criteria you need to meet to become a medico-legal expert.

What are the Pre-Requisites of Becoming a Medico-Legal Expert?

To become a medico-legal expert, you must:

Have a clear criminal history (DBS) check
Complete compliance with Civil Procedure Rules (CPR)
Health and Care Professionals Council (HCPC) registered
Maintain membership in the British Psychological Society (BPS)
Continuous Professional Development (CPD)

What are the Necessary Skills Medico-Legal Experts Must Have?

Medico-legal experts have a great responsibility for them; they must use their experience and expertise to manage complex medical cases meticulously and create a concise medico-legal report. Here are some other necessary skills medico-legal experts must have:

• In-Depth Medical Knowledge

A medico-legal expert must have a comprehensive understanding of medical science, including knowledge of physiology and medical conditions and the nuances of medical terminology. In addition, medico-legal experts must be aware of the latest developments in medicine and technology to manage medico-legal cases more accurately and proficiently.

• Experience

A medico-legal expert needs to have an extensive experience in the medical field, to understand the medical practice, examination and reporting procedures thoroughly. This is important to analyse, record medical conditions and create medico-legal reports correctly. Moreover, as a medico-legal report plays a crucial role in a medico-legal case’s litigation process, it ought to be prepared accurately.

• Objectivity

Medico-legal practice requires a fair investigation, irrespective of your personal opinions. Therefore, a medico-legal expert must be objective to become an unbiased witness and provide an independent opinion that is based on findings and analysis. The role of the medico-legal expert is to act as a witness in the medico-legal cases; hence the report they create should be solely based on the medical evidence, utterly uninfluenced by external factors or biases.

• Focus on Details

Medico-legal practice requires you to pay great attention to every detail considering all the relevant factors and records. Your medico-legal report must be based on a comprehensive analysis, medical examination and records. Any oversight can have significant consequences in the litigation process, so it is tremendously essential to stay focused on the details while dealing with any case.

• Good Communication Skills

Medico-legal roles require you to communicate with the patients, staff, and solicitors, so you must switch between technical and layman’s language. Therefore, if you have good communication skills, it will make your medico-legal practice more effective and will aid in creating a quality medico-legal report based on your clinical knowledge and clear communication skills.

• Good Management

Medico-legal experts have to work within tight deadlines, so if you are not good at task management, managing your work with a medico-legal career can be too hectic. You need to complete the investigation and analysis and prepare reports within the deadlines without compromising on the quality of your study or reporting.

Medico-legal experts play a vital role in the UK’s legal cases by providing independent and unbiased medical evidence for the case proceedings. Therefore, if you are a doctor and want to become a medico-legal expert in the UK, you must have professional experience in the healthcare sector, extensive expertise, and knowledge of the field. In addition, you are expected to be able to communicate complex medical terms clearly and provide precise medico-legal reports for legal proceedings.

Medico Reports

At Medico Reports, we provide a Medico-legal Case Management System for medico-legal experts to streamline their tasks and make medico-legal practice easier and more efficient, saving them hours of valuable time.

Medico Legal work is a great opportunity to diversify medical practice by dealing with clinical cases using a different lens. The Medico Legal expert needs to have expertise not only in the field of medicine but a complete understanding of complexities related to medical-legal laws is also required. Medico Legal work is an interesting career for health practitioners. They are well respected as expert witnesses by barristers and solicitors for the claimant or defendant.

This blog will explore work is involved in a Medico Legal expert’s job, the skills required to become a Medico Legal expert and how can one become a Medico Legal expert in detail.

• What do Medico Legal experts do?

Medico Legal experts cover various disciplines like criminal cases, industrial diseases, injuries, medical negligence, child and family laws, personal injury, mental health, employment laws, civil laws, etc. The work of Medico Legal experts depends on their specific role, though the work of Medico Legal experts may include:

Writing Medico Legal report
Defending medical negligence claim
Reviewing statements for submission to solicitors
Preparing to give evidence as a witness in court
Acting as an independent expert witness for the claimant
Preparing liability and causation along with condition and prognosis reports for various cases like traffic accidents, stress, or child abuse.

• Which skills are required to become a Medico Legal expert?

The Medico Legal expert should have a deep understanding of laws along with clinical experience and medical expertise, along with that there are some more skills which a good Medico Legal expert is expected to have:

Good time management
Medico Legal works have varied work hours depending on the case unlike doctor’s shift so Medico Legal experts should be good at time management.
Ability to handle emergency legal cases
Urgent legal and ethical situations often occur in Medico Legal cases and call for immediate action such as consent issues for life-saving procedures and other ethical issues with a medical background.
Insight into NHS structure
Having insight into NHS structure will help you have a further understanding of daily-based interconnections.
Observation and report writing skills
Writing a Medico Legal report is one of the major tasks of a Medico Legal expert, so anyone planning to choose it as a career must be aware of report writing, and good clinical observation skills
Good communication skills
The Medico Legal expert should have good communication skills to convey the finding precisely and accurately for further legal proceedings.
Good observation skills for the details
Medico Legal work requires a fair investigation of the facts, and as a doctor, you may feel that a particular case resonates with your own experience, but you need to separate your own medical knowledge from your personal opinions. Especially when you are working as an expert witness, you are expected to give fair observation.

• How to start a career as Medico Legal Expert?

First, you have to be clear about the role you want to choose according to your clinical experience. Job vacancies are listed on the NHS jobs website. Job in the field of medico-legal depends on your years of clinical experience:

Less than 5 years:

If you have less than 5 years of clinical experience then you can start with SHO level jobs such as claims handler. You can apply on the NHS jobs website or you can also contact your department manager.

5+ years’ experience:

If you have 5 years of post-qualification experience then you can become a medico-legal advisor MLA with any defense organisations. The job of medico-legal advisor can be part-time which can be managed along with your clinical commitments or full-time.

10+ years’ experience:

If you have the clinical experience of more than 10 years then you can opt for the career of an expert witness. It includes analysis of medical facts, dealing with a clinical negligence claim, medico-legal report writing for litigation. This job requires involvement in legal proceedings, attending court, and providing reports to the solicitors based on factual assessment.

To become a Medico Legal expert is a good option to have a professional degree or diploma in medical law and ethics. To become an efficient expert you can take training and courses. You can also read books, case studies, and journals of other practitioners along with learning the legal language. You need to pay attention to every agreement as an expert witness to mitigate chances of conflict or confusion. You need to learn about report writing for the legal process. All Medico Legal experts need to adhere to a code of practice for an expert witnesses to ensure the quality of their work.

Category: medico legal expert

The Essential Qualities You Need to Become a Medico-Legal Expert