ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the effect which the Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA) will have on: (a) the availability of funding for litigants in medical cases; and (b) procedure in civil courts in medical cases; and (c) procedure in other tribunals in which medical issues are debated. In relation to (a) and (b) the position is easily summarised. It is most unlikely that the HRA will produce any significant change. The answer of any court to the suggestion that there is an obligation to provide funding is likely to be: ‘No, there is no such obligation. We do much better than a number of countries bound by the European Convention who have not been criticised.’ The answer of any English court to the suggestion that civil procedure falls foul of the HRA will be (and has been already): The Civil Procedure Rules make English law wholly compliant with the Act. The Act was in mind when the Rules were drafted and the Act has nothing to add to the Rules.’
