ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book aims to impart the information realistically in a way that a balance may be struck and so remove the spectre of the court. It looks at how the court process works: the different types of court processes, the difference between the civil and criminal process and how a health professional might become involved in those court processes. The book focuses on a legal claim: how a patient may sue for clinical negligence; what the patient needs to prove in order for any claim to succeed; what the duty of care is, how the duty of care is measured, what constitutes a breach of duty of care and to whom is the duty of care owed. One of the major causes of a clinical accident is a breakdown of communication, often through poor record keeping and system failures.
