Medical Accident Liability and Redress in English and French Law

In 2002 France introduced an out-of-court settlement scheme for medical accidents. The scheme guarantees compensation for the victims of the most serious medical accidents irrespective of fault and operates in parallel with existing liability rules. In this book Simon Taylor compares English and French law on medical accident liability and redress and considers what lessons the French model can provide for potential reform in England and elsewhere. Taylor emphasizes the effect of the English and French rules on access to compensation and on the cost of liability and examines the problems that have been posed by the introduction of an administrative redress scheme in France. This book looks at the potential consequences of English and French rules for the doctor-patient relationship and for patient safety, and considers the role that national legal traditions and cultures of civil liability in England and France play in shaping national law in this area.

Introduction; 1. The state of medical accident liability and redress in England; 2. Medical accident liability and redress in France: a comparative analysis; 3. Differing cultures of civil liability; 4. The cost of medical accident redress; 5. Problems posed by the French Administrative Compensation Scheme; 6. Shaping the doctor-patient relationship through civil liability law; 7. Medical accident liability and redress: promoting patient safety?; General conclusion.

Simon Taylor is a senior lecturer at the Université Paris Diderot. He also teaches at the Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris, and at the University of Bergamo, Italy. A member of the Sorbonne Institute of Legal Research and the Groupe de Recherche Européenne sur la Responsabilité Civile et l'Assurance, he is a contributor to projects for the European Centre of Tort and Insurance Law, Vienna.