When the consent form is the case

In the matter of third-molar extractions, the consent conversation — not the consent form — is what most depositions return to. A signed form proves that a piece of paper existed at a moment in time. It does not establish that the patient understood, was given an opportunity to ask questions, or grasped the specific risks of their specific anatomy. The cases I have reviewed where the operative result was sound but the matter still proceeded to trial almost all share this feature: the medicine was defensible, the documentation of the conversation was not.