COVID-19 and Forensic Medical Practice

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the community in multiple ways. These include direct health impacts on those infected and indirect health impacts on others who may, through fear of infection, not avail themselves of available "face-to-face" health care services. The impact of COVID-19 on the legal system and the related medico-legal services it relies upon has received less attention but the ongoing social restrictions put in place because of the pandemic have the capacity to disrupt a range of legal processes. The impact of the pandemic has the capacity to interfere with both forensic medical and legal processes both in the short term and the long term. It may take some time for the potential harms to be realised but as the pandemic gradually comes under control from a public health perspective the interference to criminal and civil justice will start to become more visible.