Chan Ban Eng & Co

On the court record

The firm's record illustrates the standard-of-care and causation requirements in clinical-negligence claims and the regulatory framework under the Medical Act 1971 governing complaints against medical practitioners and appeals from the Malaysian Medical Council.

Chan Ban Eng & Co appears in the corpus as counsel with a marked concentration in medical-negligence and medical-regulatory litigation, argued in the High Court (Mahkamah Tinggi) and the Court of Appeal (Mahkamah Rayuan).

Several of the firm's matters concern clinical negligence. Acting for the defendants in one matter involving a private hospital and a treating specialist, the firm appeared where a beneficiary of a deceased patient alleged breaches of the duty of care in the management, communication and disclosure of radiological findings, said to have caused a delayed diagnosis, a loss of treatment opportunity and ultimately the patient's death; after trial the court found that the plaintiff had failed to establish liability, in particular that the applicable standard of care had not been breached or shown to have caused the loss. In a further matter, acting for the defendants, the firm appeared in a claim over the management of a deceased's medical condition where the trial proceeded solely on the assessment of damages under sections 7 and 8 of the Civil Law Act 1956, engaging the principle against double recovery and the court's duty to determine fair and reasonable compensation.

The firm also appeared in medical-regulatory litigation. Acting for the respondent in an appeal, it was engaged where a medical practitioner sought judicial review to quash the Malaysian Medical Council's dismissal of his complaint of misconduct, and the court examined the right of appeal under sections 30 and 31(1) of the Medical Act 1971, the scope of an aggrieved person, the repeal of section 31(2) and the retrospective effect of the amending legislation.

The firm's record is a specialised medical-litigation practice, engaging both the standard-of-care and causation questions at the heart of clinical-negligence claims and the regulatory framework governing complaints against medical practitioners. The recurrence of the same field across the firm's matters, from the proof of a breach of the applicable standard of care to the assessment of damages and the review of a professional regulator's decision, marks it as counsel deeply familiar with the way medical disputes are litigated in Malaysia, where the reliability of expert evidence and the fair operation of the disciplinary process are as often decisive as the underlying clinical facts.