Medical practitioners come across many medical cases which have serious legal implications, such cases are known as medico legal cases. These cases involve both medical and legal issues, which can arise when medical care, treatment, or decisions become subject to legal scrutiny for several reasons. Medico-legal cases encompass a wide range of scenarios, from allegations of medical malpractice to issues involving patient confidentiality breaches and even accidents that result in injury. Some examples of such cases are discussed below:

Consent & Ethical Issues

Patients have the right to be informed regarding the nature of their medical treatment, procedure, alternatives to the current treatment strategy, and all the risks involved, and if a medical practitioner fails to do so, then it can become a legal issue.

Medical Malpractice

Medical malpractice occurs when a medical practitioner fails to provide standard care to the patient, which leads to some harm. Medical malpractice may include misdiagnosis, mishandled surgery, botched procedures, wrong prescriptions, or inadequate treatment.

Workplace Injury Claims

If an employee sustains an injury at the workplace, then the investigation regarding the extent of the injury for compensation insurance comes under the medico legal issue.

Accidental Insurance

In accident cases, a medico legal expert provides an objective examination in the form of medico legal report providing a detailed review of the extent of injuries that occurred during the accident to create a case for accidental insurance coverage.

Disability Determination

Accidents that result in disabilities and may impact an individual’s ability to work or perform daily activities also come under the medico legal issue. As the disability claims may be filed, requiring medico legal experts to investigate the case and the extent of disability.

Medico legal issues are complex and require medico legal experts, who are medical practitioners with legal knowledge, to act as independent and neutral witness in medico legal cases. To navigate such complex and sensitive matters, medico-legal experts play a vital role in providing valuable insights and expertise. The experts give a fair, objective judgment in any case, free from any bias or prejudice, to solve disputes and legal cases. The medico legal experts provide accurate opinions on matters involving medical complications and legal implications. On the basis of their in-depth investigations of the case, they create a detailed medico-legal report which acts as evidence in the court. These expert provides credible and authoritative explanations of the case to resolve the cases and disputes.

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Medico-legal work is diverse medical practice inculcating a legal lens to look at clinical cases. Medico-legal expert requires to have experience in the field of clinical practice and an understanding of medical-legal laws.

This blog covers challenges Medico-legal experts face and also some principles which should be kept in mind while medico-legal practice to overcome challenges and produce the clear, specific, accurate report. Medico-legal report is an evidence from a qualified and experienced medico-legal expert and is vital for the litigation of a client’s case.

Following are few principles medico-legal expert needs to follow:

Traffic accidents are liable to misinterpretation of facts and even distortion of truth in court proceedings, hence need to be dealt with carefully. In personal injury cases such as traffic accidents, a medico-legal expert ought to look for a causative relationship between the incident and the client’s complaint. Personal injury cases require initial screening by an expert to determine the case before legal proceedings. Moreover, according to the Association of British Insurers, personal injury frauds have cost the British insurance industry more than a billion pounds a year.

For years lawyers have been selecting medical experts who can provide them with favorable medico-legal reports. In many cases, medical experts were challenged about changing the content of the reports after lawyers persuaded them. In cases of an actual addition of evidence it is reasonable to edit the report but changing reports just to favor lawyers and their clients is morally and ethically wrong. Medico-legal experts have to deal with such moral and ethical challenges, though such cases of intentional dishonesty are not in large number. Medical experts must demonstrate professionalism while acting as expert witnesses.

The client plays an important role in any case, and each case is highly dependent on the reliability and credibility of the client’s statement. A medical expert should pay attention to the consistency in the client’s statement and check its authenticity by other sources such as evidence, medical records, and statements of other witnesses. The client’s oral and written statements should be consistent and include medical and claim history in an elaborate manner.

Incidents psychologically impact people differently, hence there is a huge responsibility that some people tend to minimise events and some exaggeratedly present them but unconsciously. Being a medical expert you should be aware of the fact that whether it is a tendency to exaggerate or fundamental dishonesty to hide the truth. The credibility of the client’s statement is vital as it is the foundation of the claim and it is taken as objective evidence in litigation. Vague statements, changing of evidence, late submission of the claim, or pushing for an early settlement might be taken as signs of fraudulent or dishonest claim, though it varies from case to case.

Lawyers are expected to do everything in the best interests of their clients which introduce bias to the legal proceedings. Some lawyers are even motivated to win at any cost and employ dubious tactics for that. Being a medical expert one should have knowledge and understanding of legal processes as well and give an unbiased opinion.

In cases of medical negligence, medical experts also naturally have a bias, which can lead to quoting of only supporting point of views without considering other approaches. A medical expert should consider acceptable standards of care at that time, also a doctor should be willing to consider a range of opinions to provide logical analysis.

Medical experts often get caught out by accepting what the client states without checking the veracity of the client’s statements against contemporaneous medical records. Medical negligence cases are often matters of opinion in litigation and experts should take care of verifying information before reaching direct conclusions.

The above-mentioned points should be kept in mind for medico-legal cases. The role of medico-legal experts continues to evolve and sometimes litigation might become complex, but being a medical-legal expert one should be clear about legal processes, should be unbiased in every case, should look for various evidence, and consider different sources of information after verifying. These professional expertise are very vital in medical-legal cases as a medical witness and medical-legal reports created by an expert are key factors of cases and claims so they need to fully clear, not misleading or ambiguous.

Medico legal reports are required to claim for personal injury or medical negligence and are prepared by a medical expert chosen for legal processing. Evidence from qualified and experienced medico legal expert is vital for the litigation of a client’s case.

Medico legal reports inculcate client’s information, history, incident, and injury details along with any treatment needed, based on expert investigation. The medico legal reports are written under rules given in Part 35 by the Ministry of Justice. This blog provides guidelines for writing good MOJ compliant medico legal report.

As medico legal reports plays a very important role in litigation, it should be clear and specific about the facts stated. To prepare an accurate report, one should be a medico legal expert. Moreover, to prepare an apt report, expert’s advice should be limited to the information required for litigation only.

• Title page with all the required information of the claimant
• Date of the report submission
• Date of examination
• Client’s full name and date of birth
• Identity of the involved parties
• Nature of the report
• Expert’s details (name, current post, registration number, license, and area of expertise)

The report should be in a chronological order with numbered pages. The report is to have a detailed summary of the evidence, based on factual description and accurate information. The expert should refer to important parts for clarity in the report.  All the information written in the report must be clear, avoiding any sort of ambiguity, and it is also significant to mention the source of information to prove its authenticity. A good report must have full forms of abbreviations and an explanation of technical terms.

The history of the claimant also plays a vital role, so it is suggested to the highlight relevant parts of history for the case. The report must cover details of the investigation like the exact date, time, place, and results of the investigation. If some of the investigations are carried out by some other expert, it must be mentioned explicitly and as a medico legal expert for the case, it is also important to mention whether the examination took place under your supervision or not.

All the records of findings, either positive or negative, must be precisely stated to avoid ambiguity. The report must make mention of sources of all the evidence such as the clinical record, medical investigation, etc. Experts are required to provide their opinions and judgments. A Medico legal expert is responsible for all the statements written in the report which is why a thorough understanding of all the information is critical. Additionally, it is suggested to write within your area of expertise: any dwelling into the unknown makes the report susceptible to unreliability. The expert should elaborate the reasoning for all the clinical judgments made.

Medico legal reports should be prepared honestly: all the statements, evidence, and documents provided should not be false, unclear, or misleading. As these documents and judgments are vital elements for the legal proceeding of the case, any delusive or false information can expose the expert to the risk of being sued in court. It is very important to have a complete understanding of the case and the information needed for the report.

As medico legal reports is vital element in litigation, it must be succinct and well presented. Expert should first identify issues to be addressed in the report and express independent opinions with supporting arguments and findings. It is crucial to keep copy of report, medical records and all the documents. Medical legal report is written to assist administration of Justice for the case, so all the instructions given by court should be followed and expert should comply with the deadlines as this report is needed for legal proceeding.

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