Legal medicine deals with the application of medical knowledge to legal purposes and the administration of justice. It includes forensic medicine, which applies medical knowledge to establish facts in legal cases, and medical jurisprudence, which involves knowledge of law in relation to medical practice. Legal medicine is relevant to both civil and criminal law, for issues like determining mental capacity and establishing causes of death. In legal proceedings, medical experts can provide direct testimony or expert opinions, while ordinary witnesses provide information from personal knowledge. Hearsay is generally inadmissible but there are exceptions, like dying declarations. Evidence must meet standards like preponderance of evidence or proof beyond reasonable doubt to determine outcomes.

1. CHAPTER I
Legal Medicine

2. General Consideration
Legal Medicine
Is a branch of medicine which deals with application of medical
knowledge to the purposes of law and in the administration of
justice.
Forensic Medicine
Is the branch of medicine dealing with t he application of medical
knowledge to establish facts in civil or criminal legal cases, such as
an investigation into t he cause and time of a suspicious death.
Also known as forensic pathology.

4. General Consideration
Medical
Jurisprudence
Is a knowledge of law
in relation to the
practice of medicine.

5. General Consideration
Law
Is a rule of conduct, just, obligatory, laid by legitimate power for
common observance and benefit.
Forensics
It denotes anything belonging to the court of law or used in court
or legal proceedings or something fitted for legal or public
argumentations.

6. General Consideration
Medicine
Is a science and art dealing with prevention, cure and alleviation
o f disease. It is that part of science and art of restoring and
preserving health.
Legal
Is that which pertains to law, arising out of, b y virtue of or
included in law. It also refers to anything conformable to the
letters or rules o f l aw as it is administered by t he court.

8. General Consideration
Jurisprudence
It is a practical science which investigates the nature, origin,
development and functions of law.
Civil Law
Is a mass of precepts that determines and regulates the relation
of assistance, authority, and obedience between members of a
family and those which exist among members of a society for
the protection of private interest

9. General Consideration
Criminal Law
Is that branch or division of law which defines crimes, treats of
their nature and provides for their punishment.
Remedial Law
Is that branch or division of l aw which deals with the rules
concerning pleadings, practices and procedures in all courts of the
Philippines.

10. General Consideration
Special Law
• Dangerous Drug Act ( R.A. 6425, a s amended)
• Youth and Child Welfare Code ( P.D. 603)
• Insurance Law ( Act No. 2 427 as amended)
• Code o f Sanitation (P.D. 856)
Evidence
Is the means, sanctioned by the Rules of Court, of ascertaining in
a judicial proceeding the truth respecting a matter of f act (Sec. 1,
Rule 128, Rules of Court).

11. General Consideration
Medical Witness
Are physicians, nurses, surgeons or other licensed practitioners whose
skills and experience qualify them to testify on a particular medical area.
Ordinary Witness
Is someone who personally saw or heard something about the crime.
Expert Witness
Is someone who has special expertise about an element of the crime.

12. The Scope of Legal Medicine
It is the application of medical and paramedical sciences as demanded
by law and administration of justice.
The Nature of the Study of Legal Medicine
A knowledge of legal medicine means the ability to acquire facts, the
power to arrange those facts in their logical order, and to draw a
conclusion from the facts which m ay be useful in the administration of
justice.

13. The Nature of the Study of Legal Medicine
• A side from being a preceptor of fact, he must possess the
power to impart t o others verbally or in writing all those he
has observed.
• A physician who specializes or is involved primarily with
medicolegal duties is known as medical jurist, (medical
examiner, medicolegal officer, medico-legal expert).
• Health officers, medical officers of Jaw enforcement
agencies and members of the medical staff of accredited
hospital are authorized by law to perform autopsies ( Sec.
95, P.D. 8 56, Code of Sanitation).

14. Legal medicine | Forensic medicine |
Medical Jurisprudence
•Legal Medicine: primarily the application of medicine
to legal eases.
•Forensic Medicine: medicine concerns with the
application of medical science to elucidate legal
problems.
•Medical Jurisprudence: knowledge of law in relation
to the practice of medicine.

15. Ordinary Physician | Medical Jurist
An ordinary physician sees an injury or disease on the point of
view of treatment, while a medico-jurist sees injury or disease
on the point of view of cause.
The purpose of an ordinary physician examining a patient is
to arrive at a definite diagnosis so that appropriate treatment
can be instituted, while the purpose of the medical jurist in
examining a patient i s to include those bodily lesions in his
report and testify before the court or before an investigative
body; thus giving justice to whom it is due.

16. Ordinary Physician | Medical Jurist
Minor or trivial injuries are usually ignored by an ordinary
clinician inasmuch as they do not require usual treatment.
Superficial abrasions, small contusion and other minor injuries
will heal without medication. However, a medical jurist must
record all bodily injuries even if they are small or minor
because these injuries may be proofs to qualify the crime or
to justify the act.

17. Direct Evidence | Circumstantial Evidence
Direct Evidence: That which proves the fact in dispute without
the aid of any inference or presumption. The evidence
presented corresponds to the precise or actual point at issue.
Circumstantial Evidence: The proof of fact or facts from which,
taken either singly or collectively, the existence of a particular
fact in dispute may be inferred as a necessary or probable
consequence.

18. Ordinary Witness | Expert Witness
Ordinary witness: A physician who testifies in court on matters
perceived from his patient in the course of physician-patient
relationship. (Sec. 20, Rule 130, Rules of Court)
Exception: Privilege of Communication between physician and patient.
(Sec. 24 c, Rule 130)
Expert witness: A physician on account of his training and experience
can give his opinion on a set of medical facts. He can deduce or infer
something, determine the cause of death, or render opinion pertinent
to the issue and medical nature. (Sec. 48-49, Rule 130)

19. Forms of Law
1. Written or Statutory Law (Lex Scripta)
composed of laws which are produced by the country's legislations
and which are defined, codified and incorporated by the l aw-
making body e.g. Laws of the PH
2. Unwritten or Common Law (Lex non Scripta)
composed of the unwritten laws based on immemorial customs and
usages. It is sometimes referred to as case l aw, common l aw,
jurisprudence or customary law e.g. Laws of England

20. Principle of Stare Decisis
A principle that, when the court has once l aid down a
principle of l aw or interpretation as applied to a
certain state of facts, it will adhere to and apply to all
future cases where the facts are substantially the
same.

21. Application of Legal Medicine to Civil Law
In civil law, knowledge of legal medicine may be useful on the
following:
a. The determination and termination of civil personality (Art. 40 and
41),
b. The limitation or restriction of a natural person's capacity to act
(Art. 23 and 39);
c. The marriage and legal separation (Book I, Title III & IV);
d. The paternity and filiation (Book I, Title VIII); and
e. The testamentary capacity of a person making a will (Book III, Title
IV).

22. Application of Legal Medicine to Criminal
Law
Legal medicine is applicable i n the following provisions of the
penal code:
a. Circumstances affecting criminal liability (Title I);
b. Crimes against person (Title VIII), and
c. Crimes against chastity (Title XI)

23. Application of Legal Medicine to Remedial
Law
Legal Medicine may be applied in the following provisions of
the Rules of Court:
a. Physical and mental examination of a person (Rule 28);
b. Proceedings for hospitalization of an insane person (Rule
101); and
c. Rules on evidences (Part IV)

24. Hearsay Information
•As a rule, these are not admissible in court.
•Hearsay evidences are those not proceeding from the
personal knowledge of the witness but from mere
repetition of what he has heard others say.
•It is a "second hand" evidence which rest mainly on
the veracity and competence of its source.

25. Privileged Communication
Sec 21(c), ROC - Privileged Communication
A person authorized to practice medicine, surgery or
obstetrics cannot in a civil case, without the consent of the
patient, be examined as to any information which he may
have acquired in attending such patient in a professional
capacity, which information was necessary to enable him to
act in that capacity, and which would blacken the character of
the patient

26. Dying Declaration
One of the exceptions to the non-admissibility of hearsay
evidence.
The declaration of a dying person under the consciousness of
his impending death as regards circumstance regarding his
impending death i s admissible i n spite of the fact that it is a
hearsay, it is made so because of necessity and it is
trustworthy. Sec 31, Rule 130, ROC - Dying Declaration

27. Dying Declaration
One of the exceptions to the non-admissibility of hearsay
evidence.
The declaration of a dying person under the consciousness of
his impending death as regards circumstance regarding his
impending death i s admissible i n spite of the fact that it is a
hearsay, it is made so because of necessity and it is
trustworthy. Sec 31, Rule 130, ROC - Dying Declaration

28. How Evidence are Preserved:
• Photographs, audio and/or video tape, micro-film,
photostat, xerox, voice tracing, etc.
• Sketching
• Description
• Manikin Method
• Preservation in the Mind of the Witness
• Special Methods

29. Preponderance of Evidence
Sec 1, Rule 133, ROC
The following factors must be considered which party's evidence preponderate:
a. All the facts and circumstances of the case.
b. The witnesses' manner of testifying, their intelligence, their means and
opportunities of knowing the facts to which they are testifying.
c. The nature of the facts to which the witnesses testify.
d. The probability and improbability of the witnesses' testimony.
e. The interest or want of interest of the witnesses.
f. Credibility of the witness so far as the same may legitimately appear upon
the trial.
g. The number of witnesses presented, although preponderance is not
necessarily with the greatest number

30. Proof Beyond Reasonable Doubt
Sec 2, Rule 133, ROC
Proof beyond reasonable doubt does not mean such a
degree of proof as, excluding possibility of error, produces
absolute certainty. Moral certainty only is required, or that
degree of proof which produces conviction in an
unprejudiced mind.
It is presumed that a person is innocent of a crime until the
contrary is proven beyond reasonable doubt.

31. Branches of Law
1. Civil Law
2. Criminal Law
3. Remedial Law
4. Special Law

32. Basic Principles of Law
1. Ignorance of the l aw excuses no one from compliance therewith or
"ignorantia legis nominem excusat" (Art 3, Civil Code)
2. Laws shall have no retroactive effect, unless the contrary i s provided (Art. 4,
Civil Code)
3. Rights may be waived, unless the waiver i s contrary to l aw, public order,
public policy, morals or good customs, or prejudicial to a third person with a
right recognized by l aw (Art. 6, Civil Code)
4. Customs which are contrary to l aw, public order or public policy shall not be
countenanced (Art. 11, Civil Code). A custom must be proved as a fact
according to the rules of evidence (Sec. 12, Civil Code)
5. Laws are repealed only by subsequent ones, and their violation or non-
observance shall not be excused by disuse, custom or practice to the contrary.

33. Persons Authorized to Perform Autopsies
1. Health officers
2. Medical officers of law enforcement agencies
3. Members of the medical staff of accredited hospitals

34. When Autopsies Shall Be Performed
1. Whenever required by special laws;
2. Upon order of a competent court, a mayor and a provincial
or city fiscal;
3. Upon written request of police authorities,
4. Whenever the Solicitor General, provincial or city fiscal
deem it necessary to disinter and take possession of the
remains for examination to determine the cause of death;
5. Whenever the nearest kin shall request in writing the
authorities concerned to ascertain the cause of death.

35. Types of Medical Evidence
1. Autoptic or Real Evidence
2. Testimonial Evidence
3. Experimental Evidence
4. Documentary Evidence
5. Physical Evidence

36. Kinds of Evidence Necessary for Conviction
1. Direct Evidence
2. Circumstantial Evidence