This manual is not written as a substitute for legal advice. It is meant to serve as a guide in helping health care personnel answer a variety of questions. Unfortunately, these questions often come up in some legal context, thus prompting the necessity of devoting a chapter of this book to the legal system. To most of us in the health care field, the law is, at best, confusing and, at worst, intimidating. In large measure the confusion arises because the law uses its own language and its own unique set of rules in pursing its ends. Intimidation results because most often the law enters our lives only under negative circumstances and in an adversarial environment.