Obligations to indemnify damages inflicted by maiming and other personal injuries including death: theoretical and practical issues (rewiev)

Abstract

The present article aims to provide a comprehensive review of the legal basis for and special features of indemnification for damages inflicted by maiming and other personal injuries including death, in particular, due to the doctor's treatment or the denial of medical care. The fulfilment of the aim involved critical analysis of civil legislation of Ukraine, with regard to indemnification for damages inflicted by maiming and other personal injuries including death. It also employs the legal framework governing out-of-court and in-court settlement of disputes with regard to inflicting personal injury to patients due to the provision of medical assistance or failure to provide medical assistance and some aspects of the assessment of damages to be awarded to the injured patient. In order to identify common trends relating to court decisions on damages in personal injury and wrongful death cases in the healthcare setting, 8 decisions made by domestic national courts of Ukraine as well as 17 decisions made by the European Court of Human Rights were considered. The present research employed the comparative legal research method, the integrated system-wide approach, the method of , the inductive method, the method of modelling , etc. Based on the conducted research, both out-of-court and in-court ways of the settlement of disputes with regard to inflicting personal injury to patients due to the provision of medical assistance or failure to provide medical assistance were identified as well as and some aspects of the assessment of the amount of compensation for damages to be awarded to the injured patient. The article provides a critical description of the reasons for liability of healthcare facilities or private doctors for causing maiming or other personal injuries including death to patients as well as the special features of this liability in criminal proceedings. It also outlines common tendencies of making decisions on personal injury cases involving the healthcare sector by the European Court of Human Rights. The article examines the role and special features of forensic medical examination as a sound basis for determining the fact of causing a personal injury.