Golden rules of medical evidence

Chapter 27: V. HEARSAY TESTIMONY:

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About This Book

A practical manual advising medically qualified practitioners on duties and conduct when called to give legal testimony, covering classes of evidence and witnesses, preparation and presentation of medico-legal reports and court testimony, distinctions between coroner's inquiries and adversarial trials, procedures for examining the living, dying, and the dead, the limits of post-mortem and expert opinion, rules on fees and subpoenas, precautions when suspicious circumstances or poisoning are suspected, and guidance on documentation, exhibits, consultation with legal authorities, and professional conduct to preserve accuracy and avoid improvised opinion.

V. HEARSAY TESTIMONY:

MEDICO-LEGAL EXCEPTIONS TO THE GENERAL RULE WHICH FORBIDS THE RECEPTION IN COURTS OF SUCH TESTIMONY.

1. The rule is not strictly observed in the Coroner’s Court, wherein an enquiry, and not a trial between parties, is held.

2. Formally recorded dying declarations; the medical adviser often hears “the last whisper of life.”

3. Spontaneous and voluntary confessions are sometimes made to medical men.

4. Where the statement in question was part of the proceedings under investigation, thus:

a. The complaints and natural expressions of a patient as to what he feels: his words aid in deciding the course of treatment.

b. The natural expressions of a frightened person, who has not had time to concoct a lie: thus after personal injuries, indecent assault, or rape.