Physician as a witness Flashcards
5 Criminal Justice System
- National police
- Prosecution national
- Supreme court
- Bureau of correction
- DSWD
7 different courts of the philippines
- Supreme court
- Court of appeals
- Regional Trial courts
- Metropolitan courts
- Municipal Circuit trial court
- Municipal trial courts
- Sharia courts
one court serving 2 small municipalities with one
judge
Municipal Circuit Trial Courts
one court for one large municipality
Municipal Trial Courts
in the Philippines has jurisdiction over Muslim-majority Bangsamoro as well as other parts of Mindanao outside the autonomous region.
Sharia Courts
7 administrative bodies with quasi judicial functions
- PRC
- Dole
- NAPOLCOM
- Prosecutor’s office
- DARAB
- COMELEC
- Congress
- LTO, Deped or CHED
Any person who, having organs of sense, can perceive, and perceiving, can make known their perception to others.
ORDINARY WITNESS
3 PERSONS NOT DISQUALIFIED FROM BECOMING A WITNESS
- Interested person
- Criminals
- Persons on account of their opinions on matters of religious beliefs (Religious person)
Physical disqualifications for being a witness
- Unsound minds
2. Children of tender age
Spouse cannot be witness against each other without the consent of the other but can file a case
against each other.
DISQUALIFICATIONS BY REASON OF INTEREST OR RELATIONSHIP
Son cannot be a witness against his
father.
DISQUALIFICATIONS BY REASON OF INTEREST OR
RELATIONSHIP
One who has the capacity to draw inference from facts
which a court would not be competent to draw
EXPERT WITNESS
4 powers of expert witnesses
- Offer opinions
- Has special training
- Can demand PF
- Cannot be compeeled to attend
2 REQUISITES FOR A PERSON TO BE CONSIDERED AN EXPERT WITNESS
- Professional and not a layman
2. Skillful in field
4 REQUISITES FOR ADMISSIBILITY OF EXPERT EVIDENCE
- Fact needs expert opinion
- Witness is really an expert
- Medical experts may express their opinion
- The competence of the witness to testify as an expert is a question addressed primarily to the sound discretion of the court.
must be with consent of the other with regards to
any communication received in confidence during the marriage
Husband-wife
includes secretary, stenographer, or clerk or Lawyer cannot testify against client.
Attorney-client
involved in a physician-patient relationship, in civil cases only (information would blacken the
character of the patient)
Physician-patient
must have the consent of the person making
confession
Priest/minister
cannot be examined during his term of office or afterwards as to communications made to him in official confidence if public interest will suffer
Public officer
PREREQUISITES OF THE PRIVILEGED INFORMATION BETWEEN PHYSICIAN AND HIS PATIENT
- Privilege claim in civil case
- Person is authorized to practice medicine.
- Physician acquired information while attending to his patient in his professional capacity
- Information, if disclosed, would blacken the character of the patient.
Who, in extent, has priviledged information
- Interns
- Partner of physician
- Nurses
WHEN COMMUNICATION IS NOT PRIVILEGED
COMMUNICATION?
when a patient is examined by a court ordered physician
3 scope of the priveledge
- Oral testimony
- Affidavits
- Hospital records
is needed to facilitate and make safe, full and confidential disclosure by the patient to the physician to enable the latter to form a correct
opinion.
Privileged communication
applies even after the patient’s death
Privileged communication
If the patient waives his privilege the physician can now______
reveal the information
when can waiving the privilege be allowed?
- Patient is dead
- Can no longer be claimed once waived
- May be expressed or implied
when patient expressly allowed the
physician to testify on matters that are privileged
(can be oral or written)
Expressed waiver of privelage
if the patient broadcast or posted (example in
Facebook) of his condition, then the patient entered a game show and told the audience about his condition then the physician may
now reveal or answers the question in court.
Expressed waiver of privelage
Evidence not proceeding from the personal knowledge of
the witness but from the mere repetition of what he had heard being said by other people
Hearsay evidence
Reasons that hearsay evidence is not admissible are as follows:
- Hard to determine if the original declarant is
irresponsible - Depreciation of truth of the statement on the process of repetition
- Possibility of fraud
- Tendency to protract legal inquires
5 REQUISITES FOR ADMISSIBILITY OF A DYING DECLARATION
- State the cause
- State the circumstance
- State his knowledge of impending doom
- Declarant is competent
- Declarant is a victim of a crime
__________________________________ - Must concern the cause and surrounding
- circumstances of declarant’s OWN death
- Declaration was made at the time declarant was conscious of impending death.
- Declarant is a competent witness.
- Declaration is offered in a criminal case of homicide, murder, or parricide where declarant is the victim
5 DUTIES OF A PHYSICIAN WITH REGARDS TO
DYING DECLARATIONS
- Observe if patient knows they’re dying
- Observe mental condition
- Write statement of patients
- Let law enforcement take the dying declaration
- Do not decide relevance
____________________________________ - Observe patient and assess whether he is conscious of his impending death.
- Observe mental condition.
- Put down in writing the statements of the patient.
- If possible, let officers of the law take the dying declaration.
- Must not decide the relevance of the statement.
Attendance this is considered ______,
therefore inadmissible unless the ______ and be subjected to court
examination.
hearsay evidence; author himself is presented in court
This may be allowed if there is proof that the
memorandum was previously written by witness or
under his direction at the time when the facts occurred
or immediately thereafter and he knew the same was
correctly stated in writing.
Referral to memoranda
must be produced and may be subjected
to inspection by adverse party and may be crossexamined
as to its contents.
Memorandum
5 HOW MEDICAL TESTIMONY IS CONTRADICTED OR
IMPEACHED
- contradicting testimonies
- medical witness is intersted on outcome
- By inconsistent statements
- By not expressing opinion
- scientific treatise is unsustainable
2 giving untruthful statements
- False testimony
2. Perjury
“False in one, false in all.”
FALSUS IN UNO, FALSUS IN OMNIBUS
Once you have lied, your other statements are
presumably lies.
FALSUS IN UNO, FALSUS IN OMNIBUS
3 Requisites for “Falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus” are as follows:
- Witness deliberately or intentionally falsified the truth.
- Other portions of testimony to be discredited are not corroborated.
- False testimony must be on material point.
3 INSTANCES WHERE PRINCIPLE IS NOT APPLICABLE
- Sufficient coroborations
- Mistake was not ina very material point
- Error arise from innocent mistakes and desire of witness to exculpate himself
3 COURT PROTECTION OF WITNESSES
- Irrelevant question
- May not be detained for a period longer than necessary
- Can only be examined as to matters paertinent to the case
