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Doctors and lawyers are learning to put aside their preconceived notions of each other's profession and work together for the mutual benefit of their patients/clients. In the last five years, medical-legal partnerships in hospitals and health facilities have grown significantly throughout the country. These collaborations have proven effective in combating selective socio-economic impediments to health, relieving the anxiety that often accompanies a chronic health condition, and improving quality of life for vulnerable adults and children. This new partnership benefits patients, hospitals and both of these professions.
Aged Antagonisms
In 2005, The New Yorker published a cartoon in which Hippocrates is addressing a group of medical students. "First," he says, "treat no lawyers"1 - a mantra which some doctors took too seriously when a group of them refused to treat lawyers except in emergency situations.2 This cartoon captures the distrust and distaste for lawyers that pervade the medical profession. However, this sentiment is not onesided. Lawyers, too, seem to share a similar aversion for doctors. A number of factors contribute to the mutual distrust and antagonism between the professions. The most apparent factor is undoubtedly and understandably malpractice suits. Physicians resent the intrusion of lawsuits into the practice of medicine and blame the high price of malpractice insurance on lawyers. According to Dr. Robert Gillette, many doctors "tend to be cynical of the tort system, seeing it more as a means of support for neurotic patients and avaricious lawyers than as a device for deterring bad medical practice."3 Lawyers have their own set of grievances.4 Complicated professional jargon hinders open communications between both sides.5
This inter-professional antagonism runs deeper than mere conflicts involving malpractice suits; it stems from doctors' and lawyers' fundamental "lack of understanding of each other's methods, values, and roles."6 Attorneys generally work to safeguard their clients' autonomy and liberty. Doctors seek to protect and care for the health of their patients.7 While often interrelated, in reality these may be conflicting goals.
A good example of this dichotomy is a scenario in which a doctor deems a mentally ill patient to be in need of institutionalization, although the patient refuses to consent to treatment.8 Despite the doctor's responsibility and judgment, a lawyer's role under these circumstances would often be to prevent such institutionalization...