At the Society’s first meeting of the new season on 8th October 2020  Sir Robert Francis QC (well known for conducting the Mid-Staffs Enquiry and latterly chairman of Healthwatch England) handed over the presidency to Professor Harry Zeitlin, Emeritus Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at University College, London.    Professor Zeitlin addressed the meeting (held via Zoom and attended by more than 50 members) on the subject of “Expert Witnesses Past Present and Future.”  During the subsequent discussion, the meeting was delighted to hear from its former president Dr Neville Davis who, at the age of 95, is continuing to act as an expert witness.

Professor Zeitlin

Available online and now in print form with a dashing green cover the bonus issue of the Medico-Legal Journal has now been published.

The medical editor Professor Harry Zeitlin (who is due to assume the presidency of the Society in October) has written an editorial on Child Pornography and this is complemented by an article on the same subject from Sebastien Prat and three Canadian colleagues.

This issue publishes Lady Justice Heather Hallett’s talk to the Society on “Objectivity in an Adversarial System” which discusses, in particular, the partisanship of some expert witnesses and Dr Michael Norton’s paper “When Dental Implants Go Wrong.”

Original articles include a discussion from authors in Italy of assisted suicide and an article on how electron microscopy showed that the murder of a victim was achieved by two different weapons. Also from Italy is a further discussion of the use of electron microscopy in an occupational death.

Further articles which complement one another are a contribution from MLS member (and former president) Alex Samuels on Surrogacy and the Law and a discussion from India on new laws passed in 2018 banning commercial surrogacy.