This book provides insight into some of the problems and pitfalls encountered in current medical practice. It helps lawyers to commission an expert witness to write a medical report and to interpret it, using their greater knowledge and a better understanding of the practice of medicine.

This book investigates how the requirements, limitations and intellectual structure of the British legal process have shaped medicine and medical practice. The story of this inter-relationship is greatly under-researched, which is particularly concerning given that the legal system remains a significant and pervasive influence on medicine and its practice to this day. The question which unifies the series of historical studies presented here is whether legal consideration of medical practice and concepts has played a part in the construction of medical concepts and affected developments in medical practice - in other words how the external, legal gaze has shaped the way medicine itself conceptualises some of its practices and classifications. The majority of the chapters consider this question in the context of the development and application of legislation, but the influence of court processes is also considered. Other themes which emerge from the book include the nature and exclusivity of medical expertise, the impact of public opinion on the development of medical legislation, and the difficulty the legal system has faced in dealing with new medical developments. The chapters are arranged chronologically, with an introduction drawing out themes that emerge from the chapters as a whole.

This is an updated edition of a successful handbook already popular with barristers, solicitors and a number of judges as a readily-accessible source of quick reference on a wide range of medico-legal topics. Written by a legally-qualified Professor of Forensic Pathology and former Home Office pathologist, it utilises more than 40 years experience to offer a succinct summary of over 200 medico-legal topics. Though arranged in alphabetical order, this is not just a medical dictionary, as these contain much that is not relevant to legal practice and fail to provide a sufficiently expansive account of medico-legal matters. Instead, it is a carefully-selected compendium dealing with those subjects which are most commonly encountered in case-papers, conferences and the courts. It offers a concise overview of factors of importance in many medico-legal problems, from alcohol to head injury, from traffic deaths to child abuse, so that the medical evidence can be quickly evaluated and any deficiencies detected. it indicates the limits of reliability of various procedures and commonly-held medical opinions and points out those which are frequently over interpreted.; Liberally provided with clear line diagrams, including body-maps, it provides a graphic exposition of many anatomical and medical terms, free from professional jargon.

This book present a structure for understanding and exploring the semiotic character of law and law systems. Cultivating a deep understanding for the ways in which lawyers make meaning—the way in which they help make the world and are made, in turn by the world they create —can provide a basis for consciously engaging in the work of the law and in the production of meaning. The book first introduces the reader to the idea of semiotics in general and legal semiotics in particular, as well as to the major actors and shapers of the field, and to the heart of the matter: signs. The second part studies the development of the strains of thinking that together now define semiotics, with attention being paid to the pragmatics, psychology and language of legal semiotics. A third part examines the link between legal theory and semiotics, the practice of law, the critical legal studies movement in the USA, the semiotics of politics and structuralism. The last part of the book ties the different strands of legal semiotics together, and closely looks at semiotics in the lawyer’s toolkit—such as: text, name and meaning. ​

This book covers the spectrum of common respiratory diseases such as asthma, chronic bronchitis, pneumonia, lung cancer and tuberculosis, written with the lawyer in mind. Each chapter covers a specific disease and outlines the nature of the disease and its causes, but concentrates particularly upon the aspects of clinical care which are of most interest to the lawyer standards of care, clinical protocols and guidelines are described where applicable. The author has extensive experience in writing medico-legal reports for plantiff and defendant in medical negligence claims and industrial accidents

This comprehensive picture of the contemporary American legal profession traces its development over the last hundred years. Abel examines a variety of topics including the nature and effect of entry barriers, the rise and fall of restrictive practices, efforts to create demand for lawyers' services, self-regulation, the income and status of lawyers, the growth of public and private employment, the displacement of solo and small firms, and the allocation of lawyers to roles.