The medicolegal investigation: evaluation of cases with potential medical litigation.

A medicolegal autopsy protocol must serve as something more than an esoteric scientific document. It will be read by all persons interested in knowing how and of what the person died, and these readers might include family members, insurance representatives, police officials, attorneys, judges, and juries.... The writing of a medicolegal autopsy protocol is a difficult task since it must not only enable the author to recapture the details of the event at a later date if he is called to testify, but it must also provide necessary and understandable information to a variety of other individuals with varying backgrounds whose understanding of the findings is essential to a final disposition of the case.