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The focus is typically limited to the avoidance of medical errors related to the care and treatment of a patient. However, in real life practice, patient related medical errors are not the only legal issues faced by physicians. Unfortunately, non-patient related issues are numerous.

A Quebec physician, faced with such problems, realized when asking for assistance from the CMPA, that his protection only applied if his problems were due to errors related to patient care. Since his problems were not related to patient care, he was advised to hire his own lawyer. He then inquired if he could pay more to have this coverage included. The response was that since the largest provider of malpractice coverage for physicians in Canada (CMPA) is not an insurance company, this protection could not be offered.

They noted that many physicians have had to pay a great deal of money to lawyers in order to defend themselves in disputes with para-governmental organizations and their professional orders because these issues were outside the scope of their malpractice insurance. As a result, most physicians were choosing to defend themselves. Physicians were writing their own letters in response to a complaint, represented themselves in front of disciplinary boards of hospitals and regulatory bodies, provided documentation themselves to billing bodies, etc.

The observed consequences of inadequate legal protection during every step of a legal process were catastrophic. Licenses suspended for months at a time, harassment issues, time consuming quasi-legal processes, occasional physician suicides, and in rare cases, criminal convictions. Adequate and immediate legal council, at the earliest stages of any process can address and swiftly end many of these issues without further professional or financial damage to the physician.