Medico-legal information
July 2008
- BMA medico-legal services to members
- Print resources
- Web resources
- Other organisations and libraries
Two aspects of medico-legal medicine are of broad interest:
- Definitions of the legal boundaries within which clinicians are able to practice their profession.
- Medical complaints of professional accountability, liability and litigation.
BMA members should contact askBMA with any medicolegal enquiries they may have: you will need to give your membership number.
tel: 0870 6060 828
Use this link to send an email to askbma@bma.org.uk
Ask BMA advisers will contact the BMA regional office or legal department for advice if this is necessary.
At its discretion, the BMA can assist individual members in cases which raise questions of principle affecting the medical profession as a whole.
Print resources
There is a small section on medicine and the law at W 32.5. Other relevant publications are shelved with the respective specialties. Copies of major UK laws and bills, and the reports of working parties and commissions, are purchased and are available for loan.
Current journals in stock include:
Butterworths medico-legal reports
Butterworths
Butterworths Medico-Legal Reports offers expert and accurate reporting of cases on a wide range of areas such as medical negligence, consent to treatment, National Health Service administrative and employment law, pharmaceutical products, quantum damages, mental health and the conduct of medical bodies.
http://rimer.butterworths.co.uk/webcat/enquiry/index.htm
Clinical risk
Royal Society of Medicine, ISSN 1356-2622
Best practice guidelines for doctors, managers and lawyers
http://www.rsmpress.co.uk/cr.htm
Medico-legal journal
Medico-Legal Society, ISSN 0025-8172
MLS addresses as well as educational commissioned articles
http://www.medico-legalsociety.org.uk/journal.asp
Journal of the medical defence union
Medical Defence Union, ISSN 0953-99
http://www.the-mdu.com/gp/services/publications/journal/index.asp
Medicine, science and the law
British Academy of Forensic Sciences
Chiltern Publ, ISSN 0025-8024
http://www.bafs.org.uk/cgi-bin/somsid.cgi?session=695245A&page=journal
Web resources
Lawlinks
University of Kent at Canterbury: useful links to legal information:
http://library.ukc.ac.uk/library/lawlinks/default.htm
Glasgow University Library
Full guide to research in UK law:
http://www.lib.gla.ac.uk/Subject/Law/guides.shtml#Finding%20Basic%20Legal%20Materials%20Guides
Acts of UK Parliament
Available from 1988:
http://www.hmso.gov.uk/acts.htm
UK Parliament World Wide Web service
Bills and other parliamentary publications:
http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/home.htm
Directgov
The Civil Procedure Rules 1999, including Guidance for Experts, which deal with medico legal reports, can be found via this UK Government site (which replaces open.gov.uk:
http://www.direct.gov.uk/
Health reports
It is often difficult to locate bibliographic information about government reports. An alphabetical list of the short titles by which official health-related reports, White Papers and Acts of Parliament are often known is available at:
http://cwis.livjm.ac.uk/lea/info/health/heareps.htm
Medical Litigation Online
Subscription service which includes a database of case laws, articles and settlements:
http://www.medneg.com/
PJB Publications
Range of specialist products dealing with all aspects of clinical research, clinical study design and Good Clinical Practice (GCP) for medicinal product and medical devices:
http://www.pjbpubs.com
Medical Law Review
This presents articles mainly of international interest but one of its two commentary sections concentrates on UK law and includes case reports and legislation summaries:
http://www3.oup.co.uk/medlaw
British Journal of Criminology
The table of contents and abstracts are freely available although full-text access is restricted to current subscribers:
http://bjc.oupjournals.org/
European Journal of Health Law
The web page with tables of contents and subscription information is at:
http://www.kluwerlawonline.com/
Other organisations and libraries
Expert Witness Institute
1st Floor 7 Warwick Court
London
WC1R 5DJ
tel: 0870 366 6367
fax: 0870 411 2470
email: info@ewi.org.uk
http://www.ewi.org.uk/
Services and supports experts. It respresents the expert witness community, both experts in all professional disciplines and lawyers who use the services of experts. Its functions are to encourage, train and educate experts and to improve and maintain their standards and status.
General Medical Council (GMC)
Regents Place
350 Euston Road
London
NW1 3JN
fax: 020 7580 7642
fax: 020 715 3641
http://www.gmc-uk.org
Keeps an up-to-date register of qualified doctors, maintains standards in medical education and practice, and deals with doctors whose fitness to practice is in doubt. This latter function can be called upon when a doctor has been convicted of a criminal offence or these is an allegation of serious professional misconduct or a doctor's performance is deficient. In cases of professional misconduct sanctions can range from striking the doctor's name off the register to issuing a warning.
The Medical Register is no longer printed. A full archive of registers is kept in the BMA archives.
Institute of Medicine, Law & Bioethics
University of Liverpool
Liverpool
L69 7ZS.
tel: 0151 7942815
fax. 0151 7942829
email: imlab@liv.ac.uk
http://www.imlab.ac.uk
University of Manchester
Oxford Road
Manchester
M13 9PL
tel: 0161 275 7703
fax: 0161 275 7704
Collaborative venture between the universities of Liverpool and Manchester, with the assistance of the North West Regional Health Authority.
Medical Defence Union (MDU)
3 Devonshire Place
London
W1N 2EA
tel: 020 7486 6181
fax: 020 7935 5503:
http://www.the-mdu.com/
Non-profit making mutual company providing assistance with ethical and medico-legal problems.
Medical Protection Society (MPS)
33 Cavendish Square
London
W1M 0PS
tel: 020 7399 1300
fax: 020 7399 1301:
http://www.mps.org.uk/medical
Independent, international, non-profit making, mutual association aimed at defending the interests and reputation of its members - doctors, dentists and healthcare workers. The MPS and MDU deal with defending doctors if necessary who are faced with clinical negligence claims.
Useful information from clinical tips to guidance on how to write medico-legal reports.