Author(s): S. I Salihu | Volume 19 Issue.1 (2023)
Abstract
Since the view of the Law Lord Denning in his book the Discipline of Law, that no doctor shall be held liable for negligence unless his brothers in the profession will say he ought not to have done it the way he did. The need for expert in the field to testify became significant in any medical negligent claim. By implication you need an expert witness, his colleagues in the profession to opine that the doctor is wrong for acting the way he acted. This view of the learned law Lord was adopted and followed by the House of Lord in the celebrated Bolam case. The aim of this paper is to review the case of Dr Shehu being one of the classical negligence cases that emanated from Kano State High Court of Justice but was overturned on appeal by the Court of Appeal. The brief fact of the case will be given in the paper to show the wisdom of requiring an expert witness in the case of medical negligence. The paper concludes by showing how the unwritten Code of Medical Ethics (Conspiracy of Silence) is killing cases of medical negligence in court. It should therefore be recommended that doctors should see testifying against colleague as a sacrifice to protect the integrity of the profession and the society at large. It should also be recommended that as it is a professional duty to report any erring legal practitioner who violates the rules of the legal profession, doctor should also adopt same rule.
Keywords: Negligence, Expert, Doctors Conspiracy of Silence