Defense lawyer needs to decipher operative reports.

January 14, 2009 6:31 PM

What are some good resources for a new defense lawyer looking to learn a little about medicine? My firm often defends companies in personal injury lawsuits, and I have been reviewing a lot of medical records lately. I have no background in medicine, and I want to gain a better understanding of the injuries I'm reading about - (mostly musculoskeletal injuries, often involving the back, knees, shoulders, etc.) and the surgeries done to correct them. I'm looking for web resources, books, anything!
posted by eliina to Law & Government (6 answers total)

You might want a medical dictionary. I'm not sure what's online for free (we have one online where I work, but that could be a paid thing) but in hard copy there's Dorland's. You'll also probably want a little medical abbreviation reference - they have hard copy book(lets) for this, too.
posted by dilettante at 6:54 PM on January 14, 2009

"Attorney's Textbook of Medicine" edited by Gray & Gordy... published by Matthew Bender & Co. available on CD Rom for $5K but used printed copies are much less.
posted by Fins at 7:24 PM on January 14, 2009

Isn't this exactly what legal nurses do?
posted by alice ayres at 10:52 PM on January 14, 2009

Best answer: Good advice so far. I had to this myself. Definitely get a Medical Dictionary and a medical abbreviation reference. I used to have Stedman's Dictionary, but after losing it, I inherited a Dorland's Dictionary. For abbreviations, I have Shelia Sloane's Medical Abbreviations and Eponyms--it is a really big help in reading medical records. I don't know if the internet is a good replacement; I like just reaching next to me and pulling it off the shelf.

Does your firm have a library? We have a bunch of subject specific manuals and treatises covering pretty every area of medicine. If you are encountering the same things again (soft tissue damage, spinal surgery) it would probably be worthwhile to buy a book for the firm on that. In addition to being a great reference, the pictures can also be helpful and aped. By way of example, currently on my desk, pulled from our library are two different books for things I was looking up.

One is "Operative Nerve Repair and Reconstruction" by Richard Gelberman that I was looking at for a peripheral nerve repair case.

The other one is Avery, Fletcher & MacDonald's Neonatology: Pathophysiology & Management of the Newborn that I was using for a brain damaged baby case that I have. It has great information about mortality rate, and it just taught me a good bit about hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy.

Reading all I can about the subject is useful when talking to our experts or clients and having a baseline of understanding. And if you want to get to the point of taking good expert depositions, you must spend hours reading all you can about the conditions in question.

Isn't this exactly what legal nurses do?

Legal nurses are good for doing medical chronologies and summaries. That is, doing the time-consuming task of going through volumes of records to create useable quick reference summaries. But the attorney who relies on just the summaries of a legal nurse is not a good attorney. Have to do the leg work yourself and truly immerse yourself in the medicine.
posted by dios at 9:13 AM on January 15, 2009

I should add that it get easier quickly. There will always be something to look up, but you will quickly get a very sufficient working knowledge of the medicine if you put the time in early.
posted by dios at 9:14 AM on January 15, 2009

This site has a pretty decent medical abbreviations search. There's also a medical dictionary, but that's not too useful (IMO).
posted by dilettante at 2:54 PM on January 15, 2009