ПРАВНА ПРИРОДА ГРАЂАНСКОПРАВНЕ ОДГОВОРНОСТИ МЕДИЦИНСКИХ ПОСЛЕНИКА
LEGAL NATURE OF CIVIL LIABILITY OF MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS

Summary/Abstract: The liability of medical professionals is a very complex and complicated issue as they may be subject not only to civil liability but also to criminal liability, misdemeanor liability and disciplinary liability. Yet, the complexity of civil liability of medical professionals is incomparable with the complexity of other aspects of their liability. Thus, medical professionals may be held liable for their own activities or actions but, nowadays, they are much more frequently held liable for actions of another person. Prima facie, their civil liability is indisputably an example of contractual liability but it may frequently involve a non-contractual liability in tort, which is the most common case in practice. As a rule, the legal ground for establishing civil liability of medical professionals is fault (culpability), which implies their personal responsibility. However, in the legislation of some countries which envisaged an open system of objective (strict) liability, the legislator has not excluded the strict liability of medical professionals for damage, injury or harm caused to patients by using dangerous medical instruments and devices. Although it may not be regulated in a straightforward and comprehensive manner due to its heterogeneous legal nature, civil responsibility of medical professionals should be given more consideration not only in the process of enacting legislation but also in the process of rendering much more creative judicial decisions.

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