• POPIA COURSE MAY 2021.All medical legal, health care, and legal practitioners are required to comply with the provisions of the Protection of Personal Information Act, Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA). SAMLA in association with SmartPrivacy will be presenting online training on POPIA COMPLIANCE. Choose between 20 and 22 May 2021. Click here to register.

• VERY IMPORTANT CHANGES TO THE SAMLA NATIONAL COURSES. PLEASE GO TO THE NATIONAL COURSES PAGE FOR THE LATEST INFORMATION.

• Interested in joining the SAMLA Mediation Project? e mail us on info@samla.org.za and see our website page for more info. Click here...

• Keep looking at the Judgements page  for new judgements...and if you think we should post something, let us know! info@samla.org.za

SAMLA offers National Courses on Medico-Legal Practice which  have been designed and presented by the Faculty of SAMLA and accredited by the Faculty of Law at the University of Cape Town. 

Foundations in Medico-Legal Practice is a short course. It cannot be viewed in part but only as a complete course. The course can be attended for CPD purposes, or it can be completed by attendees who write a once-off multiple choice examination and, if successful, are issued with a certificate of completion from the Faculty of Law at UCT. Completion of the Foundations Course in Medico-Legal Practice also qualifies attendees who are members of SAMLA for registration as medico-legal practitioners. (Note that SAMLA recognises prior learning as well, and completion of the Foundations Course is not the only route to being able to qualify as a medico-legal practitioner).Thirty CPD points are awarded on completion.

The 10 Practical Workshops in Medico-Legal Practice can be done individually or as a whole. The courses may be attended for CPD purposes or, if all assignments that are assigned are completed successfully by the attendees, a certificate of completion from UCT is awarded for each course completed.

Attendees who complete successfully the Foundations Course in Medico-Legal practice as well as the 10 Practical Workshops qualify for a Certificate of Competence in Medico-Legal Practice issued by the Faculty of Law at UCT.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the courses are all now online.

Please go to the National Courses page to read about the available dates and deadlines!!

Azlyn Creative is the service provider responsible for the administrative management of the National Courses.  The costs of the courses have been determined by Azlyn Creative and not by SAMLA. For all information, registration, payment, and access to the courses, please go to http://samla.co.za

All Members of SAMLA who are registered with a professional regulatory body are invited to apply to appear on SAMLA's Register of Medico-Legal Practitioners.

A Medico-Legal Practitioner is an individual who works in the medico-legal space, who is in good standing with his or her primary professional regulatory body  and who  has volunteered him/herself to peer review, and who  has committed him/herself  to SAMLA’s unique code of conduct in medico-legal practice. For more details, you can read our MOI in which these details are specified. 

To appear on the SAMLA Register of Medico-Legal Practitioners,  one submits one’s credentials to SAMLA’s Credentialling Committee which comprises senior members of the legal and healthcare professions who have extensive experience in medico-legal practice. If the applicant’s credentials satisfy the requirements specified, then that applicant may register as a Medico-Legal Practitioner.  All Members of SAMLA who appear on the register of Medico-Legal Practitioners commit themselves to SAMLA’s code of professional conduct. 

The proposed tiers of registration as Medico-Legal Practitioners have been circulated to the broader membership for consideration, but not yet been established. We envision three tiers - an entry level, a senior level and an advanced level, to reflect experience and seniority, and to promote a development trajectory.

What is really important is that SAMLA is not, and does not intend ever to be a regulatory body. We do not, in any way, see our role as supervisory. The registers are simply lists of persons in the medico-legal field who voluntarily show that they have pursued learning in this field, demonstrate competency,  are willing to demonstrate on-going learning in the medico-legal sphere by earning specific points in medico-legal CPD annually, and are willing to commit themelves to a code of conduct.