In this day of increasing malpractice claims, six-figure judgments, rising liability insurance premiums, and a decided tendency among appellate-level courts to permit plaintiffs to utilize testimony of physician-defendants to substantiate their own complaints, a more-than-casual acquaintance with the legal concepts of medical practice is as necessary in the physician's armamentarium as diagnostic acumen and antibiotics. In this third edition of a book first published in 1955, Long discusses some of the elementary rules of medical liability as they are now being interpreted, and he conjectures that what may seem radical today may be only a base for even greater judicial broadening in the future.
Together with an overview of the entire subject, there are specific sections dealing with malpractice in practically every branch of medicine. The "conspiracy of silence" among physicians, making it difficult if not impossible to obtain expert witnesses on behalf of the plaintiff, is well authenticated. Numerous