Medical testimony and the medical witness

Abstract

In preparing this brief talk on 'Medical testimony and the medical witness', I could not avoid recalling the prevalent view that the court is indeed the best friend of honest men. I find it difficult to reconcile this belief with the other view that 'The honest witness is the lawyer's easy prey' . It is probably this element of contrast, and the adoption of surprise tactics perhaps, that renders the box between bench and bar so uncomfortably restrictive. It is also perhaps a lack of adaptation mingled with a touch of unpreparedness that leads to such a poor show before a full and critical gallery. At times too, it is made pretty obvious that the important role the medical witness was to play had to be taken up only through force of circumstance, seemingly a last minute imposition, rather than out of a desire for the fulfilment of an onerous responsibility.