On December 3-4, Jolanta Budzowska participated in the Second Medical Law Congress organised by the Polish Medical Law Association. The Congress took place at the oldest and most renowned university in Poland, the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, and was attended by highly recognised professionals and representatives of both medical and legal professions. The Congress was devoted to very practical issues at the border of law and medicine and among the invited guests there was the former Chairman of the Polish Constitutional Tribunal, professor Jerzy Stępień, the former President of Health Policy Department of the Council of Europe, Piotr Mierzejewski, PhD, as well as the representative of the Polish Ombudsman.

Ms Jolanta Budzowska delivered a presentation devoted to compensatory liability in respect of patients on the basis of the Directive 2011/24/EU. The topics covered by her in her lecture were connected with the controversies connected with the implementation of the Directive, the cross-border elements of possible claims pursued by patients under this legislation and different medico-legal aspects of medical tourism.

The presence of Budzowska Fiutowski and Partners at the Congress was also marked by the presentations delivered by two associates Ms Małgorzata Kiełtyka and Ms Karolina Kolary, who discussed very interesting yet complicated cases of hospital infections and provided information of how to successfully plead such cases in court as well as how to avoid the potential objections of the opponents. Moreover, they focused on the latest court decisions issued in England, Ireland and Germany that pertained to crucial aspects of the patient’s consent, continuous professional education of doctors, the challenges connected with proving the relevant causality in the trial and the doctor’s liability for negligent treatment.