ANALYZING MEDICO-LEGAL CASES IN INDIA: IDENTIFYING FREQUENCY, PATTERNS AND ERRORS THROUGH MLR
This study examined cases of injury or illness that involved legal issues and needed police investigation, called medico-legal cases (MLCs). We looked at the kinds and features of 3105 MLCs that happened at a big hospital in 2015. We collected information on the age, sex, month, MLC type, weapon used, victim's place, and mistakes in the medico-legal reports (MLRs) written by doctors. We found that most MLCs were caused by road accidents (40%), followed by hitting or punching (32%), cutting or stabbing (19%), poisoning (5%), and shooting (4%). Most victims were young men under 30 years old. Road accidents happened more in cities, while hitting, cutting, and shooting happened more in villages. Most injuries from hitting or punching were due to fights or violence. Most injuries in general were from blunt force. We also found many errors in the MLRs, such as missing or wrong details, diagnosis, opinion, signature, stamp, etc. We concluded that road accidents are the main reason for MLCs, followed by blunt trauma and cutting injuries. MLCs are a big and ignored problem in many poor countries that affect public health. MLRs should follow clear rules as they are important for legal matters and patients' rights. We suggested that doctors should get training on how to write MLRs properly for justice.