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We are often asked to provide reports of a medico-legal nature by lawyers, or by patients seeking to have an objective & District Court "professional witness" compliant opinion of their condition.
The practice policy is to provide medico-legal opinion for patients who have been previously accepted for treatment by the practice, or by legal firms who are seeking objective statements of conditions or previous professional care issues.
The practice is commonly asked to provide the following medico-legal reports...
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Formal permanent impairment assessments for workplace or motor vehicle accidents, involving the mouth, teeth, jaws and face
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Formal medical opinions of dental, oral, and maxillofacial injuries suffered by means of violence or accident
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Formal medical opinions in relation to iatrogenic or care related injury.
As the surgical practice is primarily involved with patient treatment, rather than for the sole provision of medical opinion, the practice views such requests as a primary conflict of clinical interest. Meaning, it is possible that subsequent Court initiated, defence or plaintiff subpoena action (especially in regards a demand for Court attendance) would detrimentally affect the efficient clinical running of the practice to a significant financial degree.
Therefore, it is practice policy to decline all requests for medico-legal opinion unless the requesting party agrees to meet all stand down fees of the practice that would arise in the event of a subpoena action being requested by either them, the courts, or by the defence.
Stand down fees for a specialist surgeon can be substantial, and are effectively equivalent to legal State Councel (SC) hourly or day rates (either booked or attended). These fees are significantly higher compared to normal subpoena conduct fees as set separately by the courts, or as advised by the AMA.
The practice will provide formal medico-legal fee schedules, and appropriate medico-legal consent on request, and only to legal or insurance firms already known to the practice.
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