Medical Litigator now available on WestlawNext
Screenshot of the Medical Litigator home page
The medical litigation practice area is clearly complex, can be difficult to navigate and for many, can be even harder to understand. Medical Litigator, now available on WestlawNext, is built to help legal professionals understand and learn medical terms, conditions, procedures, devices, and drugs, which in turn enables them to more confidently evaluate and litigate medical cases. It also enables them to communicate more effectively with their clients and medical professionals with whom they are working.
Medical Litigator has been upgraded to be more user-friendly, easing the ability to simultaneously search a wide variety of medical guides and summaries, medical journals and abstracts, legal texts and resources, case law, jury verdicts, and medical illustrations, the latter of which can be used as exhibits in trials. Search results can be easily narrowed to view only content that users consider most important for their particular case. For example, a user may choose to view only search results for medical illustrations or medical journals.
Legal professionals can leverage Medical Litigator to:
- Learn and understand the key issues of a case;
- Understand medical terms and issues (causation, standard of care, severity of injury);
- Research current litigation, verdicts, settlements;
- Locate health care professionals and expert witnesses; and
- Discuss information with medical experts.
Screenshot of a sample summary page
Additionally, Medical Litigator on WestlawNext provides a “Learn About,” which provides a high-level summary of a disease, injury, medical device or drug. These
summaries also are available by way of linked medical terms and drugs embedded within case law and analytical content. Medical Litigator also will take general terms, such as heart attack, and provide a list of medical-related terms. For example, Cardiac Infarction, Inferior Myocardial Infarction, Lateral Myocardial Infarction, Microinfarction of Heart, Non-Q Wave Myocardial Infarction, etc. Users can select any of those related terms to be included in their Medical Litigator search.
Furthermore, medical license information is available to verify the license status of a physician or other medical professional.
Medical Litigator ultimately helps users assess claims, educate themselves and clients, find authoritative sources, and bring effectiveness and efficiency to work requiring both medical and legal information.
