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Sep 14, 2008
RE-VISITING THE MEDICO-LEGAL LANDSCAPE
You have given me the solution, not the problem here!
In
the 18 years since the first edition, then called “Medical Negligenceâ€,
appeared there has been massive change from the 1980s in the
medico-legal landscape. Michael Powers, the late Nigel Harris and
Anthony Barton and their team are responsible for producing the
definitive work on clinical negligence which has direct relevance to
lawyers, medics and all other professionals involved in the rigorous and
RE-VISITING THE MEDICO-LEGAL LANDSCAPE
You have given me the solution, not the problem here!
In
the 18 years since the first edition, then called “Medical Negligenceâ€,
appeared there has been massive change from the 1980s in the
medico-legal landscape. Michael Powers, the late Nigel Harris and
Anthony Barton and their team are responsible for producing the
definitive work on clinical negligence which has direct relevance to
lawyers, medics and all other professionals involved in the rigorous and
lively debate surrounding this specialist area of negligence as health
issues remain at the top of the political agenda.
The book has
everything the practitioner needs being a compilation of the experiences
of the eighty contributors set out in an authoritative manner with an
index at the beginning of each of the 56 specialist chapters. It starts
with a simple title in chapter 1, ‘The Law’, and then ‘Clinical
governance’ in chapter two as an overview, and then goes into every
medical department we need to refer to, explaining the law as it affects
all aspects of clinical activity.
It is very unusual to have a
politician as the writer of the Foreword but when one reads John Baron’s
comments, it becomes apparent that his government continues to consider
the structure of the NHS and its future role one of the highest
priorities. Mr Baron feels an opportunity was missed concerning the
“truly independent†nature of dispute investigation which many may
disagree with, notwithstanding the ‘patient problem’ or human rights.
Baron
goes on to write that “there are said to be about a million adverse
clinical events each year, but there are only a few thousand clinical
negligence claims†and he rightly puts into perspective the approach
which lawyers must have concerning contentious litigation.
I
teach conditional fee agreements (CFAs) as part of my mandatory
continuous professional development commitment as a barrister-at-law,
but I always exclude clinical negligence and specialist risk assessment
because it is in a league of its own as far as negligence practitioners
are concerned.
Baron says that “politics, society and natural
justice demand that we have a system that is accessible to all, fair and
economically viable†and then we get the dreaded word ‘finance’
appearing and a surprise statement from a Labour politician that “the
conditional fee system supported by private insurance could be an
answerâ€. It may well be once the latest academic review of CFAs is
concluded by the Ministry of Justice but it certainly isn’t the
socialist way.
However, although the politician says many of
these issues “have more to do with politics and economics than law or
medicine†(ruling out more legal aid money).
How right he is!
Fortunately, the book is brilliant on detail and how the system works,
especially for the advocate preparing and appearing in court with superb
chapters on experts, evidence and proceedings, settlements, the role of
leading counsel and trial, with the ever trusty CD ROM which I find
makes life a great deal easier as a dependable data tool to go with the
bulky red book.
There is much in this statement of the law which I
barely understand, especially some aspects of the terminology which
evaded me as a Bar student although the idiot’s glossary was my revision
tool. I can report that whilst this book looks daunting, and the
subject looks (and is) daunting, the beauty of this statement of
clinical negligence is the clarity with which the subject is explained
without the over-use of references, but with a friendly index which more
than saves time by the way in which it has been compiled and
structured.
Michael Powers and his team identify the biggest
change in clinical negligence as the development of ‘after the event’
insurance and CFAs whilst John Baron says the future for “clinical
negligence legal practice is bright and prosperous†(an interesting use
of the word ‘prosperous’) and that change “should be embraced as an
opportunity, not feared or rejected as a threatâ€.
Yes.
Good
point, and he ends with something I heard many times from a former
female PM “lawyers will need to demonstrate their professionalism by
representing the solution, and not the problemâ€.
They do just
that, in my submission, and this work provides the solution not the
problem for which we should all be very grateful to the learned and
distinguished contributors who have created the definitive statement on
clinical negligence in a one stop volume and made our litigation lives a
great deal easier in the process.
PHILLIP TAYLOR MBE LL.B (Hons) PGCE Barrister-at-Law
Richmond Green Chambers
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