A Medico-Legal Case is defined as in which there is a case of ailment and injury, etc., for which investigations by the law-enforcing agencies are essential to fulfilling the responsibility for the cause of the ailment.

In simple words, MLC is a medical case in which there are some legal implications for attending doctor, in which the attending doctor after taking the history and examining the patient and thinks that there might be some investigation by law enforcement agencies is essential. Legal case requiring different type of medical expertise when they brought by the police for examination or assessment.

MEDICO-LEGAL CASES EXAMPLES:

Medico legal cases (M.L.C.): A medico legal case is a patient who is admitted to the hospital with some unnatural pathology and has to be taken care of in concurrence with the police and/or court.

Types of clients which are categorized as MLC during a hospital are

• Road traffic accidents
• Injuries that causes during fights, bomb blasts etc
• Suicide
• Burns
• Poisoning
• Rape victim
• Assault

This is clearly noticeable from the recent erupt in lawsuit/legal action concerning medical professional or establishment accountability, claiming redressal for the suffering caused because of medical negligence, vitiated consent, and breach of confidentiality arising out of the doctor-patient relationship. In order to prove that medical malpractice occurred, the patient must be ready to show all of those things:

• A doctor-patient relationship existed.
• The doctor was negligent.
• The doctor’s negligence caused the injury.
• The injury led to specific damages.
• Failure to diagnose.
• Improper treatment.
• Failure to warn a tolerant known risks.

The complaint against medical negligence are often filed as mentioned below.

• within the District Forum if the worth of services and compensation claimed is a smaller amount than 20 lakh rupees,
• Before the State Commission, if the worth of the products or services and therefore the compensation claimed doesn't exceed quite 1 crore rupees.
• within the National Commission, if the worth of the products or services and therefore the compensation exceeds quite 1 crore rupees.

Medico-legal cases need to be addressed properly, following the institution’s prevailing guidelines. Usually, all the big hospitals and the teaching institutions have an ‘institutional medico-legal manual’ which gives, in a step-wise detail, the correct procedure for dealing with the various kinds of MLCs. Even if such manuals aren't available, these cases pose no problem if one uses proper caution and ordinary care and a spotlight, while handling them.

Documentation should be done properly and timely information, and thorough examination should be done including all relevant investigations and referrals, etc, are all that are necessary to determine such cases completed successfully.