Montgomery V. Lanarkshire (2015)
Definition
UK Supreme Court case replacing the Bolam test on risk disclosure with a patient-centred test: a doctor must take reasonable care to ensure the patient is aware of any material risk and of reasonable alternatives. A risk is material if a reasonable person in the patient's position would attach significance to it.
- Court
- UK Supreme Court
- Year
- 2015
- Replaced
- Bolam test on risk disclosure
- New standard
- Patient-centred material-risk disclosure
Common questions
How does the Montgomery test differ from the older Bolam standard it replaced?+
Bolam judged adequacy of risk disclosure by what a responsible body of medical opinion would have disclosed, while Montgomery instead asks whether a reasonable patient in that person's position would consider the risk significant, shifting the focus from professional norms to the individual patient's perspective.
What counts as a material risk under Montgomery?+
A risk is material if a reasonable person in the patient's position would likely attach significance to it, or if the doctor is or should reasonably be aware that this particular patient would attach significance to it, making the test partly patient-specific.
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