Legal & Administrative Services

Experts Doctors Shield Consultants Limited (Doctorshield) is a limited company, registered under the Indian Companies Act, 1956 in Delhi, promoted by a group of experts with more than 24 years of experience handling medical negligence cases and providing legal shield to medical professionals and medical establishments all over India, with a success rate of more than 94%.

Doctorshield is an all-India medical defense company formed to provide medico-legal defense against any medico-legal risk or problem arising on its members under any Act, Rule or Law. It also provides protection against professional monetary risk by arranging Professional Indemnity Insurance / Errors & Omissions Insurance coverage through one of India's leading insurance companies, and takes up the cause of medical practitioners and establishments by handling legal cases promptly at every level — Consumer, Civil, Criminal Courts and Medical Councils — from lower courts up to the Hon'ble Supreme Court.

Medical practitioners in India today are wary of the Consumer Courts established by the Government of India, and of the legislation bringing them under Consumer Court purview. Rapid advances in medical science, new treatment and diagnostic techniques, and new diseases linked to pollution and environmental imbalance, have posed great challenges — compounded by rising consumer-rights awareness. Medico-legal problems are so technical that only a medico-legal expert can properly deal with them.

While Doctorshield arranges insurance coverage through a leading Indian insurer to meet liability from medical negligence cases, compensation through insurance alone does not protect a doctor's professional dignity — cases must be contested to establish precedents recognising the complexity of medical science. For this, Doctorshield maintains a battery of efficient lawyers across most districts of operation, alongside a strong Legal Advisory Board of retired judges and senior advocates of the Hon'ble High Courts & Supreme Court. Doctorshield is the first and only company of its nature to have an eminent Hon'ble High Court, Delhi lawyer — who has defended thousands of medical negligence cases in Delhi & NCR for over two decades — on its Board of Directors, as Honorary Director (Legal).

Where insurance companies also maintain legal representatives, Doctorshield's edge is appointing lawyers with deep medico-legal knowledge and pursuing appellate remedy before the Hon'ble State Commission, National Commission and Supreme Court — targeting a reduction in the quantum of any award at the appellate stage.

Doctorshield's wide network, built by a group of experts with 24 years of experience handling medical negligence cases across India, has earned appreciation from thousands of doctors and various branches of the Indian Medical Association. The Delhi Medical Association — a State Branch of the IMA — strongly recommended its members take Doctorshield membership, reportedly the first such appreciation-cum-recommendation letter given to a company of this nature.

Some doctors take Professional Indemnity Insurance directly from insurers. Note that such coverage is a miscellaneous liability insurance covering only civil liabilities arising from proven professional (medical) negligence — insurers do not act when a criminal or non-medical-negligence case is initiated, whereas Doctorshield provides legal services and protection of every type, civil and criminal, as and when initiated on its members.

Doctorshield's professional commitment to its members

Drawing on more than 24 years of expertise, Doctorshield offers:

• Medico-legal defense through expert counsels experienced in medical negligence cases.
• Personal legalities defense through expert lawyers, covering any personal legal case irrespective of medical service/treatment — summons to witness, departmental enquiries, instrument-purchase litigation, billing complaints, banking/credit-card contractual litigation, medical-registration or passport complaints, and criminal cases related to the medical profession (subject to some exceptions).
• Arranging court-awarded compensation through a leading insurance company for members who opted for insurance coverage through Doctorshield.
• Insurance coverage as and when required — Professional Indemnity Insurance for practitioners / Errors & Omissions Insurance for establishments — through a leading Indian insurer.
• Timely intimation of incidents, impleadment of the insurance company as a party as needed, arranging survey of the incident, and settlement of insurance claims.
• Defense of all cases, irrespective of number, in any court of law in India.
• Bearing all legal costs, professional fees and expenses incurred in investigation, defense or settlement of any claim — and representation at any inquest or enquiry directly relevant to a claim — provided the claim falls under the Professional Indemnity / Errors & Omissions Insurance availed through Doctorshield.

General terms and conditions of Doctorshield

• Any registered medical practitioner or medical establishment in India can take Doctorshield membership after remitting the requisite membership fee.
• Cover starts from the day of remittance along with completion of the membership agreement documentation.
• The cause of action of any case is interpreted as the prescription or treatment initiated from the date of becoming a member till the expiry of membership.
• Even after membership expires, if a case is initiated against an ex-member for treatment given during the membership period, Doctorshield handles it without additional fee.
• Pre-membership cases attract an applicable pre-membership legal fee, decided by the Doctorshield Legal Cell.
• Membership covers medical practice/services all over India — members may practise anywhere in the country.
• Doctorshield sends membership agreement documents, enrolment letter, payment receipt, indemnity policy documents, membership card and medical consent form directly to the member's address after enrolment and renewal.
• Claim documentation is processed per the original insurance contract, renewable every year; delay in renewal due to the member's fault ceases the monetary liability automatically.
• Compulsory excess applies for medical establishment coverage: 0.25% of the indemnity limit per claim, subject to a minimum of Rs. 1,000/- and maximum of Rs. 1,00,000/-, as per the insurance contract.
• Members should contact the helpline mobile numbers in case of any legal problem, and quote their membership number for all enquiries or correspondence.
• All payments must be made by A/c payee cheque favouring "Experts Doctors Shield Consultants Limited". Cash payment is strictly banned; paying in cash is entirely at the member's own risk.
• Discontinuation of membership at any stage is not permissible, and no refund of membership fee is made under any circumstances.

Medical fee with insurance coverage

Includes all legal and administrative charges of Doctorshield. See the current tariff tables for exact figures by tenure and category:

Practitioner tariffs   Establishment tariffs