Our attention has been drawn to a recent article by Professor Tim David which was originally published in 'Archives of Disease in Childhood' which offers guidance to medical experts when writing medical reports.
The article will be of interest to lawyers and all professionals involved in cases of suspected child abuse. It will also provides a useful checklist or benchmark for those people who have been the subject of a report by a medical expert in medical case involving alleged child abuse.
The report begins:
All paediatricians, paediatric radiologists, paediatric pathologists, forensic pathologists, and many other specialists have to deal with cases of suspected child abuse, and in terms of the generation of complaints from families this is a high risk activity. Many complaints are devoid of merit, but in some cases a complaint is justified because of a faulty approach. This review draws attention to the avoidable pitfalls associated with report writing when child abuse is under consideration (more)