PRELIMINARY INFORMATION

PRELIMINARY INFORMATION, part of a forensic medical autopsy report (introduction). When conducting a forensic medical autopsy, the expert has the right to request all information that is available about the deceased body. This usually includes the death report protocol, witness interrogation protocols, the protocol of the corpse examination at the place of discovery, and data from the medical history if the deceased was in a hospital before death. All this data is briefly included by the expert in the forensic medical autopsy report under the subtitle "preliminary information." Preliminary information should be treated with great attention, but at the same time critically. Well-prepared preliminary information with a statement of all the circumstances of the case, supplementing the data from the autopsy, often determines the order and direction of the research itself, helps to establish the mutual connection of phenomena, and thus enables the expert to formulate an opinion more accurately and in detail; the importance of preliminary information is no less significant in other examinations, for example, in medical examinations, etc. On the other hand, however, there are cases when the autopsy reveals data that does not correspond to the preliminary information; in such cases, it is sometimes possible to think of intentional distortion of the truth by the death reporter and witnesses.