Compensating victims of occupational lung disease: the physician's role in the system

In the United States, the two legal remedies available to victims of occupational lung disease are claims for benefits under workers' compensation laws and suits for damages under the laws of products liability. In both types of legal proceedings, the role of the physician as medicolegal consultant and expert witness is (1) to describe and diagnose all significant pathology, (2) to prove or disprove a causal relationship between the significant pathology and impairment or death, (3) to identify and explain the etiology of the significant pathology, and (4) to evaluate impairment and disability. The physician's opinions, which must take into account legal as well as medical criteria, are given by way of written report and oral testimony. The purpose of this article is to advise and instruct the physician how to perform the functions of medicolegal consultant and expert witness in a case of occupational lung disease.