ACLM Expert Witness Course - Thur 17 & Fri 18 September 2015
Novotel Lakeside Hotel, Queenstown New Zealand.
Legal Medicine encompasses the interchange between medicine and law and nowhere is this more apparent than when doctors are invited to provide expert witness testimony. This is provided as either the treating doctor or to provide an independent assessment of a circumstance within the domain of the doctor’s expertise.
Being an expert witness requires providing a report and/or attending a court or tribunal and is often stressful for the doctor concerned. The Australasian College of Legal Medicine (ACLM) runs training programs to familiarise clinicians as to what is required within such situations.
The course includes didactic lectures to offer advice as to what is expected of the expert by the instructing solicitor, the barrister and the adjudicator (such as the judge). It instructs the clinician how to behave within set situations. There is also provision of didactic/interactive advice from an experienced expert witness.
Each participant is asked to submit a de-identified legal medicine report at least two weeks prior to the course. These reports are critically marked to provide advice as to how they can be improved and they serve as a basis to be led and cross-examined in a moot (a mock trial) involving real lawyers in a courtroom environment.
This introduces the participants to all facets of expert witness training with the aim of both meeting the expectations of the legal profession while concurrently not ignoring that which is due to the expert by way of compensation and consideration.
For a full program and to register, visit www.legalmedicine.com.au/courses
