Referral doctor
Who is the referral doctor?
The referral doctor, also known as the victim's medical expert, is the only medical expert who exclusively defends the interests of the victims.
If he is recognized as a judicial expert, he can also carry out the missions entrusted to him by the Courts, thus working as a judicial expert for the Ministry of Justice.
On the other hand, and as a guarantee of his impartiality, he generally chooses, as is logical, never to work for insurance companies or any other compensation organization, from which he wants to remain totally independent.
What’s the role of the referral doctor?
The victim’s expert medical advisor's role is crucial and starts by the primordial duty of constitution and instruction of the dossier, as soon as possible after the damage. In fact, the traumatized individual must always bring the proof of the ensemble of his/her prejudices; therefore, at the medical level, of the ensemble of the damages onto his/her physical and psychological integrity, as well as of their consequences.
In order to do so, the referral doctor systematically proceeds to the exhaustive gathering of the victim’s plaints, to his/her clinical examination and to the realization of all the specialized complementary examinations that are necessary to the highlighting of the medical problems ensemble following the trauma suffered by the victim. The doctor also gets in touch with all the participants from the therapeutic sector, by written form, in order to obtain detailed medical reports regarding the diagnosis of the incurred lesions, of their treatments and evolution.
He/she determines the consolidation date which is the moment at which, after having used all the therapeutic resources, the health state if the victim is considered as medically stabilized, since it’s not susceptible to evolve in a significant way anymore. It is the, that he estimates the persistent deficits and disorders, considered as definitive aftereffects.
Afterwards, he/she proceeds to an as precise as possible medico-legal evaluation of the ensemble of the accident’s consequences and of the integrality of the prejudices concretely suffered by the victim; the whole of this process is followed accordingly to the medical expertise precepts and the reference legal frame. At last, during the contradictory discussions that take place during the amicable or the judiciary medical expertise, he/she defends the victim’s interests, with the supporting proofs and arguments. He/she then enunciates his/her reclamations, on the basis of his/her estimations, so all the prejudices are correctly evaluated and taken into account, which is an indispensable condition to a fair reparation.
The successive steps are the following ones :
1) Constitution and instruction of the dossier
2) Gathering of the plaints, clinical and specialized examinations
3) Evaluation of the prejudices
4) Discussion and defense of the victim’s interests
During the whole of it’s intervention, the referral doctor listens closely to the victim, answers to all of his questions and potential preoccupations, advises him/her, and explains the whys and wherefores of the procedure, he/she describes its different steps and prepares him/her to them. On another note, he puts him/herself at the disposition of its legal counsel, of the victim’s lawyer, with whom he/she collaborates in order to result in the fairest indemnity.