Legal Responsibilities Terms

Legal

Of or relating to law

Civil law

Laws that deal with the rights of people rather than with crimes

Criminal Law

Laws that deal with crimes and their punishment

Torts

An action that wrongly causes harm to someone that is not a crime and that is dealt with in civil court.

Malpractice

Careless, wrong, or illegal actions by someone, such as a doctor who is performing a professional duty.

Negligence

Failure to take the proper care that a responsible person usually takes; lack of normal care or attention; neglecting ones responsibilities.

Assault and Battery

A threat to attack another person followed by actual attack, which need amount only to touching with hostile intent.

Informed consent

A formal agreement that a patient signs to give permission for a medical procedure, after having been told about the risk, benefits, etc.

Invasion of privacy

Illicit or unauthorized use of documentary materials related to the treatment or condition of a patient.

False Imprisonment

An international tort; the intentional unjustified, non-consensual detention or confinement of a person within fixed boundaries for any length of time.

Abuse

To treat someone with cruelty or violence.

Defamation

The act of saying false things in order to make people have a bad opinion of someone or something.

Slander

To make a false spoken statement that causes people to have a bad opinion of someone.

Libel

The act of publishing a false statement that causes people to have a bad opinion of someone or something.

Contract

An agreement or promise that meets certain legal requirements, including competence of both or all parties to make the contract, proper lawful subject matter, mutuality of obligation, and consideration.

Implied Consent

The granting of permission for healthcare without a formal agreement between the patient and health care provider.

Expressed consent

A clear and voluntary indication of preference or choice, usually oral or written, and freely given in circumstances where the available options and their consequences have been made clear by informed consent.

Legal disability

Lack of legal capacity or qualification, such as that of a minor or mentally impaired person, to enter a binding contract.

Agent

A person who acts on behalf of another.

Privileged communications

Term used concerning the right to reveal information that belongs to the person who spoke it. Privileged communication may exist between healthcare professional and patient if the law specifically establishes it.

Health care records

Collection of clinical information pertaining to a patient's physical and mental health, compiled from different sources.

Confidentiality

The principle in medical ethics that the information a patient reveals to a health care provider is private and has limits on how and when it can be disclosed to a third party.

Patient rights

Basic rule of conduct between patients and medical caregivers as well as the institutions and people that support them.

Advanced Directives

An advanced declaration of treatment preferences in case a person is unable to communicate his or her wishes.

Living Will

An advanced declaration by a patient that, if determined to be hopelessly and terminally ill, the patient does not want to be kept alive by medical life-support equipment.

Durable Power of Attorney

A document that designates an agent or proxy to make healthcare decisions if the patient is no longer able to make them. The document directs the surrogate person to function as the attorney; and make decisions regarding all treatment, including the finan

Patient Self-Determination Act

An act mandating that individuals enrolled in health care facilities are informed on admission in writing of their rights to formulate advanced directives and to consent and refuse treatment.