Letter to the Editor
I enjoyed Alice Brandfonbrener’s editorial “But I Didn’t Ask to Be a Lawyer” in the June 2002 issue of MPPA [MPPA 2002;17(2):57]. I understand and sympathize with her. Many physicians who, like her, are involved in these cases for altruistic reasons rather than pure commercial—-and I believe that this is more common in the world of performing arts medicine—-must find themselves in the same predicament. However, in the words of an eminent English lawyer, who qualified and practiced as a gynecologist before turning to the law, when considering medical and scientific evidence (or in many cases, including performers, non-scientific evidence!): “However scientific the subject matter of the claim and however recondite the evidence and the argument, the legal definitions must apply in a Court of Law; the problem for the lawyer is in making the scientist understand a totally different concept of proof required by the court.” Therefore physicians involved, whether altruistic or not, must understand the basis of these claims.