2.7. The forensic physician's duty to the court
The scientific, empirical evidence gathered by medical professionals can be of great value when led as evidence in court; simply even the doctor's objective account of what they were told had happened can add significant weight to a legal case, and as such it is very important that the source of all recorded information is correctly attributed. In Scotland specifically, the potential contribution that the findings of a forensic medical examination can make in terms of corroboration should not be underestimated. This requirement for corroboration is sometimes misunderstood; it does not require two separate ‘proofs beyond reasonable doubt’, it just requires that key facts of the case are backed up with a secondary piece of evidence which is ‘consistent with’ an incriminative hypothesis. Hence, even non-conclusive medical evidence could be of vital significance in this regard.