Home
Going to an invasive medical procedure, undergoing dangerous surgery or some lengthy medical treatment has its fair share of risks, and patients ought to be informed about them no matter what. There are many forms of patient claims that arise in hospitals or medical institutions daily, and some of those medicolegal reports are vital to determine the severity of the legal outcome. When something unpredicted, impactious, inaccurate, or impartially incorrect happens in a medical case, you need to have a medico-legal report to determine the exact cause, result, and outcome of the case. These legal documents must be written under strict guidelines to outline the specifics of the medical case clearly. Here is all you need to know about what is a medico-legal report, and whether you need to have an expert witness by your side. Read on.
Table of Contents
What is a medico-legal report?
Put plainly, medico-legal reports are specialized legal reports that a health professional, mainly a doctor, surgeon, or other expert, prepares for use in a legal case. Most solicitors and practicing lawyers always demand such reports during legal proceedings in a court to provide additional medical evidence necessary for the case. Medico-legal reports can be used in many forms, but the most common use is connected to establishing the severity and the extent of an injury or illness to purposefully help the court decide on the right compensation. Also known as a medical expert witness report, these vital documents created by a qualified medical professional should provide a detailed analysis of the medical facts necessary to the case. In one form, they serve as evidence and they must be impartial and not to advocate any party involved in a case.
Who and how writes a medico-legal report?
No matter the case, a medico-legal report is always supposed to be written by a qualified doctor as an expert witness in the field for a legal case. What a medico-legal report has to entail is the proof and explanation for any civil law claims for various damages for victors or personal injury, diseases, and medical negligence and mishaps. Therefore, a medicolegal report mustn’t be influenced by personal opinions, especially by the bias of the doctor writing them, so it’s advisable to find an independent medical expert to write one. For example, if you require an expert from Australia to write a professional medical litigation opinion or a medico-legal report in the range of neurosurgical and spinal orthopedic areas, you can contact Briz Brain & Spine clinical team to get a specialist with the highest level of experience to write the report.
What should be included and written in a medico-legal report?
Depending on the case, solicitors very often provide medico-legal reports to outline the unique specifications of a case. In most cases, a medico-legal report ought to contain information related to the details of the injury, or vital medical facts about the accident, surgical documentation, treatment procedure, and the tangible professional opinion on the recovery progress. It’s utterly important to note that a medico-legal report ought to be compressed only by a medical expert with the exact permission of the patients concerned who are well aware of what that report would be used for. What’s more, the medico-legal report needs to contain only relevant information for litigation which means that any form of personal or biased remarks need to be avoided. For instance, when a patient’s solicitor requests a medico-legal report from an independent medical expert, they need to respond to such a request otherwise you would be violating the law.
Types of medico-legal report
Again, depending on the severity of the case and the unique requests from the solicitor, there are a few types of medico-legal reports. Here are the most common ones:
- A full medico-legal report: involving a full physical checkup and assessment of the bodily injuries, from physical such as scars, marks, and other musculo-skeletal damages to psychological and emotional treatments.
- Psychiatric or psychological medico-legal report: focusing on a detailed clinical psychiatric and/or psychological assessment as well as the analysis of the diagnosis and treatment applied.
- Professional/expert medico-legal report: partially independent reports from the treating clinician showcasing the therapeutic support provided. These reports must be noted as the “therapeutic relationship” to be fully understood in the art and not be considered objective.
- Addendum medico-legal report: an updated report from the original writer for altering specific matters of the case.
All in all, a solicitor may require a medico-legal report to solve or assist in solving the dispute regarding any form of medical care. Aim to get an independent expert’s opinion to go through the medical condition and analyze the case.Also, read: effective therapy for autism in Hong Kong
