The health system has seen an increase in prosecutions and health professionals have emerged to expand their professional role within the legal system to train lawyers, judges and jurors. Health professionals have the knowledge, skills, qualifications and expertise to assess whether appropriate quality medical care has been provided. Health professionals advise on a rapidly expanding area of medical legal issues such as personal injury, employee compensation, product liability, custody cases, risk management, life care planning, case management, health licensing authority, the insurance industry and expert witnesses. Although many medical legal advisors work in law firms and in the insurance industry, they also adopt an entrepreneurial spirit and start their own business. Hey, my comment is gone. I said something like: A friend of mine likes to do forensic work, and malpractice is only a small part of it. And that there is a learning curve. The legal system is the basis of a civilized society, and this type of medical work is part of it. Being cynical is easy – learning a new skill and monetizing it requires a more mature person. When doctors and lawyers think of lawyers hiring doctors, they only think of one thing: hiring doctors as experts.

It is important to know that you are not acting as a medical expert and will not participate in medical malpractice. There is a big difference between a medical legal advisor and a medical legal expert. In fact, they are two completely different things. The GDL covers the fundamental principles of English law and the legal system, but offers little time to reflect on the principles underlying the law. A question of legal philosophy would lead to confused glances from the lecturer, whose sacred text was the teaching manual. At the end of the GDL year, we took written exams for each major subject with distinctions of successful merit. The program was extensive, and for the first time I sympathized with those brave medical students who asked in the lectures, « Excuse me, is it probably in the exam? » What happens if the complainant fails the process, people don`t show up, or legal teams change their dates at the last minute? However, be aware of the challenges ahead: financially, personally and professionally. It may be helpful to contact a lawyer or medical lawyer and ask if you could spend a few days accompanying them. www.avma.org.uk/resources-for-professionals/information-for-medical-experts/information-and-forms-for-experts/ If you continue to use your hard-earned medical knowledge, help people, and want a non-clinical option, consider this new type of forensic advice. I ask for an advance of $10,000 in advance to start. I think it works well and the advice to get money up front is very important. I found medico-legal very satisfied with this agreement.

Consultation for biomedical/device manufacturers is more difficult because they often don`t like such agreements and always want to let you work for free. You need to be notified with these guys. There are ways to make it work, but pay attention to your time commitments. Plan B was a return to university, so I arranged an honorary position at Imperial College to maintain my ties to academia. « If the law is not for me, » I thought, « at least I have a legal qualification under my belt. » There may be little harm and a lot of benefit for a medical ethicist with a dual qualification in ethics and law. In 2008, I was a lecturer in medical ethics and law at St. George`s, University of London. I had no legal background and felt uncomfortable teaching law to medical students.

Some of the PhD students were former lawyers and it had to be clear to them that the limitations of my legal knowledge did not extend beyond the PowerPoint slide. When you start, it can take a while – even a year or two to become « known. » In other words, when embarking on forensic work, you need to think about the game for the long term and get your systems and processes in order from the get-go. It starts with your state of mind. Forensic work is about giving your expert opinion for money. You don`t care about the « patient » and it`s important that you can be impartial. In these areas of law – personal injury and workers` compensation – approximately 9 out of 10 cases are resolved. In other words, the cases are heard, then an agreement is reached, and the case is never taken to court. Anything we can do as medical counsel, as opposed to medical experts, to help lawyers negotiate and resolve cases to increase the value of the case with less attorney time and help with medical matters in the case is very, very appealing to many lawyers. In fact, for most lawyers. The BPTC is a hands-on course that covers evidence, civil and criminal procedure, oral argument, conference and negotiation skills, as well as writing tips and briefs for lawyers. Students are expected to know the law or how to find it.

There was a mandatory ethics module that was little more than learning the rules of the bar code of ethics. Two specialized options can be used in the second semester, including professional negligence (which covers medical negligence). If you pass the BPTC, you may then be called to the bar. The purpose of the law course is to prepare you for the first year of life as a lawyer: the student body. The purpose of a medico-legal dispute is to be able to convince the judge that you have a better argument than the opposition, in short, to win the argument based on more credible evidence. The reason there has been a legal debate is that the issues are controversial (gray instead of black or white). The physician who is attracted to medico-legal issues is usually a specialist in practice for at least 10 years (orthopaedics and psychiatry are the most common) and begins to take cases (expert opinions) from publicly funded institutions such as the Workers` Compensation Board, provincial auto insurance, Pension Board, military. Over time, depending on its performance and reputation, other agencies may call: insurance companies, individual law firms, medical protection agencies, unions.

While different clients want the same answers, each one formulates its questions differently to achieve its goals, and each creates different guides for assessing permanent disability. The old adage « caveat emptor » for the employee, perhaps thinly veiled, is still present. Hatton1 I respect you and your contribution. I do not disagree with what you are saying. I am certainly not trying to encourage people to jump into the medical arena of complainants. Personally, I do almost no medical work and only defense when I do. From what I`ve seen, it`s a small piece of the biggest cake of forensic work. There are many ways medicine and law/insurance intersect. If there is a conflict at the intersection or confusion, doctors can help. Some of it is bodily injury or suspected bodily harm where there is none. Some of them are presumed disabilities – real or not.

Comparison cases may be appealed. A healthy, well-trained doctor can shed light on the case. There are all kinds of niches with millions of dollars that have nothing to do with the horrific experiences you talked about.