LEGAL MEDICINE Atty. Marie Merle Mesina M.

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- testamentary capacity of a person making a will (2 types of
INTRODUCTION TO LEGAL MEDICINE will: notarial will and holographic will)
Source: PPT, recording 2. Criminal law
- circumstances affecting criminal liability
Legal Medicine -crimes against persons
• Branch of medicine which deals with the application of - crimes against chastity
medical knowledge to the purposes of law and the 3. Remedial/Procedural Law
administration of justice/law - physical and mental exam of a person
• Scope is broad and encompassing. It can apply two different - proceedings for hospitalization of insane person
2 branches, the civil law and -rules on evidence
Forensic Medicine 4. Special laws
• Application of medical science to elucidate legal problems - Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act
Medical Jurisprudence - Child abuse
• Application of legal knowledge to the practice of medicine -Anti-Violence against women and children
- Anti-Photo and Voyeurism Act
Nature of the Study of Legal Medicine
• A knowledge of legal medicine means the ability to acquire Some Basic Principles Governing the Application and Effects of Law:
facts, the power to arrange those facts in their logical order 1. Ignorance of the law excuses no one from compliance
and to draw conclusion from the facts which may be useful in therewith (A.3. Civil code)
the administration of justice 2. Laws shall have no retroactive effect unless the contrary is
• Sec. 95. Code of Sanitation provided (A.4. Civil code) (ex. If your are accused for illegal
○ Health officers, medical officers of law enforcement possession of fire arms with 20 years of imprisonment in the year
agencies and members of the medical staff of 2010, and there was revision of law, and the year of
accredited hospitals are authorized to perform imprisonment changed into 6 years by year 2015, you can be
autopsies. dismissed if your act is not habitual)
• Sec. 2, Article III Code of Medical Ethics of the Medical 3. Rights may be waived, unless the waiver is contrary to law,
Profession of the Philippines public order, public policy, morals, or good customs or
○ It is the duty of every physician, when called upon by prejudicial to a 3rd persons with a right recognized by law (article
the judicial authorities, to assist in the 6 Civil code)
administration of justice which are medico-legal in 4. Customs which are contrary to law, public order or public
character. policy shall not be countenanced (Article 12, civil code)
Licensed Physician is and Expert in Legal Medicine and May testify in 5. Laws are repealed only by subsequent ones, and their
court concerning the following violation or non-observance shall not be excused by disuse, or
(the court relies on the expertise of a physician, and may call one custom or practice to the contrary.
to provide testimonies that can shed light in the medical
manner of the issue unless under the Doctorine of Res ipsa When the courts declare a law to be inconsistent with the
loquitur): Constitution, the former shall be void and the latter shall govern.
• Dead on arrival (hospital stay <4 hrs) Administrative or executive acts, orders and regulations shall be
• Death or physical injuries resulting from alleged suspected or valid only when they are non contrary to the laws or constitution
known criminal activities, sudden, violent, suspicious, (article 7 civil code).
unexpected, unexplained death, disabilities and physical
injuries. Medical Evidence
• Testify medically unattended death Under the rules of court ( compilation of the rules of court with
• Vehicular injuries and death respect with the procedure of the trial)
Medical Jurist/Medical Examiner/Medicolegal • Evidence - Sanctioned by these rules, of ascertaining In a
officer/Medicolegal Expert - A physician who is involved judicial proceeding the truth respecting a matter of fact
primarily with medicolegal duties (accepted by the rules of court to ascertain the truth)
• Admissibility of evidence- evidence is admissible when it is
DISTICTION BETWEEN AN ORDINARY PHYSICIAN and relevant and is not excluded by law or these rules
MEDICO-LEGAL OFFICER • Factum probandum
Ordinary Physician Medico-legal officer ○ the guilt of the accused to be proved
- point of view of tx - point of view of cause ○ Ultimate facts
- arrive at definite dx - testify in court/body • Factum probans - Material evidences to prove the
-ignores minor injuries -records all injuries facts/proposition
• Relevant evidence - has the tendency in reason to establish
Application of Legal Medicine to Law the probability or improbability
1. Civil Law • Material evidence- the quality of evidence which tends to
- determination and termination of civil personality influence the trier of facts because of its logical connection
- limitation/restriction of a natural persons capacity to act with the issue. Ex. During the investigation of crime scene,
- marriage and legal separation

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gun was discovered, and has logical connection to the ‒ The declaration of a dying person made
suspect under the consciousness of an impending
• Competent evidence- evidence not excluded by law (legally death, may be received in any case wherein
obtained) his death is the subject of inquiry, as
Relevancy of evidence; collateral matters evidence of the cause and surrounding
• Evidence must have such a relation to the fact in issue as to circumstances of such death
induce belief in its existence on non-existence; evidence on ‒ Entries in official records by a person in the
collateral matters shall not be allowed, except when it tends performance of a duty enjoined by law, is a
in any reasonable degree to establish the probability or prima facie evidence of the facts.
improbability of the fact in issue. Who can be a witness?
Types of Medical Evidence • Expert witness
• Autoptic/real evidence ○ Having expert knowledge about the evidence In the
○ Addressed to the senses of the court/ exhibited, case
examined or viewed by the court ○ Allowed to express an opinion about the validity of the
○ Limitations: indecency and impropriety, repulsive and evidence and may quote the statements of other
offensive experts in support of an opinion
• Testimonial evidence ○ Can be asked with hypothetical questions and their
○ Physician may be summoned to appear in court to give answers admitted as testimonial evidence
his testimony as an ordinary or expert witness • Ordinary witness
‒ Ordinary witness can perceived and can ○ Prohibited from stating opinions and from giving
make known their perception to others conclusions
‒ Expert witness requires special knowledge, ○ His statements are restricted to what he saw or heard
skill, experience or training which he is Requisites for the admissibility of expert testimony
shown to posses 1. The subject matter under investigation must be one that
• Experimental evidence- confirmatory or as a corroborative requires that the court has the aid of knowledge or experience
proof to an opinion previously stated (reenactment) 2. The witness called as an expert witness must possess the
• Documentary evidence in a form of medical exam, physical knowledge, skill or experience needed to inform the court about
exam, autopsy report, lab reports the particular case under consideration
• Physical evidence 3. Expert testimony is not admissible as to a matter not in issue.
○ Articles/materials found in connection with the
investigation and which aid in establishing the Preservation of Evidence
identity if the perpetrator or the circumstances To maintain their value when presented in court
under which the crime was committed or which aid Methods in preserving evidence
in the persecution of a criminal. 1. Photographic, audio and/video tape
○ Types of physical evidence (body of the crime) 2. Sketching
‒ Associative evidence- links suspect to the 3. Description
crime 4. Manikin method
‒ Tracing evidence- aid in locating the suspect 5. Preservation in the mind of the witness
‒ Criminalistics- application of sciences in 6. Special methods- embalming
crime detection/investigation Kinds of Evidence Necessary for Conviction
Testimony
1. Direct evidence - “nakakita jd and witness”
• Disqualification by reason of privileged communication
2. Circumstantial - existence of a fact in dispute may be inferred
the following persons cannot testify as to matters learned in from the fact/s taken singly or collectively.
confidence in the ff cases
ex. “wa jud sya ka kita sa event mismo, but saw the suspect ran
A. xxx
from the crime scene with a gun”
B. xxx 3. Corroborative -additional evidence of a different kind and
C. A person authorized to practice medicine, surgery or character tending to prove the same point “knowledgeable that
obstetrics cannot in a civil case, without the consent of the
the suspect owns a gun but did not see the crime itself”
patient, be examined as to any advice or treatment given by him
Quantum of Evidence
or any information which he may have acquired in attending
such patient in a professional capacity, which information was 1. Preponderance of evidence
necessary ti enable him to act in that capacity, and which would - civil cases
blacken the reputation of the patient -the party filling the case has the burden of proof and must
• Testimony generally confined to personal knowledge, establish the truth and righteousness of his allegations
hearsay excluded- a witness can testify only to those facts -superior weight of evidence on the issues involved gravitate
which are derived from his own perception, except as 2. Proof beyond reasonable doubt
otherwise provided in these rules -in criminal cases
○ Exception: dying declaration - moral certainty or the degree of proof which produces
conviction in an unprejudiced mind.

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