Judgment at medico-legal dispute

As the number of medical malpractice court cases has been increasing recently, it is critical for the sound development of surgery to give appropriate expert medical opinions to enable fair judicial decisions. Surgeons are asked to give such opinions in response to requests from the courts and from the parties involved in trials. To make expert opinions easily understandable to judges and lawyers, it is important to clarify general aspects of disease and the characteristics of the case at issue, give detailed descriptions of cause-and-effect relationships, indicate the evidence for every assertion, detail medical reasons prior to evaluation, and recognize the differences between clinical practice and retrospective analysis. One of the major causes of prolongation of medical malpractice trials is the difficulty in finding people qualified to give expert medical opinions. Surgeons should therefore take a positive attitude toward participation in legal procedures.