On 10th March 2015, the UK Supreme Court delivered its judgment in Montgomery v Lanarkshire [2015] UKSC 11- an important case about the law relating to risk disclosure in medical negligence.  In her judgment, Lady Hale cites from a leading medical law text - Principles of Medical Law, which is jointly edited by Dr Judy Laing, Professor Andrew Grubb (formerly of Cardiff Law School) and Professor Jean McHale (Birmingham Law School). Judy is a member of Bristol Law School academic staff with teaching / research interests in medical law and she has published extensively on aspects of mental health law in particular.  

 

In her judgment Lady Hale states: 

 

'In the third (2010) edition of their leading work on Principles of Medical Law, Andrew Grubb, Judith Laing and Jean McHale confidently announced that a detailed analysis of the different speeches of the House of Lords in Sidaway v Board of Governors of the Bethlem Royal Hospital and the Maudsley Hospital [1985] AC 871 was no longer necessary. A combination of the 2008 Guidance provided by the General Medical Council, the decision of the Court of Appeal in Pearce v United Bristol Healthcare NHS Trust [1999] PIQR P 53 and the decision of the House of Lords in Chester v Afshar [2005] 1 AC 134 meant that it could now be stated “with a reasonable degree of confidence” that the need for informed consent was firmly part of English law (para 8.70). This case has provided us with the opportunity, not only to confirm that confident statement, but also to make it clear that the same principles apply in Scotland' (para. 107). 

 

Principles of Medical Law is published by Oxford University Press and is a leading authority on medical law, used widely by legal practitioners and academics working in the field. It is currently in its third edition but a fourth edition is in preparation and will be published later this year.