The aim of this book is to provide an overview of those legal issues most relevant to individuals working in the healthcare professions. The need for a basic understanding of the legal framework in which healthcare is provided, and of the role that law and the judiciary play in the working lives of all such professionals, is now being recognised and by the increasing emphasis placed on the teaching of legal and ethical principles to undergraduate students in medicine, nursing, pharmacy and allied professions. Knowledge of these subjects has become an intrinsic part of many teaching courses, and there is no part of the wide spectrum of healthcare provision that does not, at some time, require an understanding and consideration of these basic medicolegal principles. Those professionals already qualified and in practice, both in hospitals and the community, regularly experience the need to have appropriate knowledge of many of these issues. With increasing frequency items of medicolegal significance appear in the news and media. This book looks at those areas where law and medicine commonly meet. The chapters are written by a multidisciplinary group of practitioners with special interest or experience in their subjects. We hope that these medicolegal essentials will provide a sound basis for undergraduates, postgraduates and all healthcare providers, and will inspire some to develop, further their own interest, knowledge and understanding of the growing and increasingly important interface between medicine and the law.