Although medical liability (disciplinary, civil and criminal) is increasingly becoming an issue, few studies exist, particularly from the perspective of forensic science, which demonstrate the extent to which medical malpractice occurs, or when it does, the reasons for it. Our aims were to evaluate the current situation concerning medical liability in general surgery (GS) in Portugal, the reasons for claims, and the forensic evaluations and conclusions, as well as the association between these issues and the judicial outcomes.

We analysed the Medico-Legal Council (CML) reports of the National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences of Portugal related to GS during 2001–2010. The judicial outcomes of each case were requested from the Public Prosecutor Office (PPO) and the court. Alleged cases of medical liability in GS represented 11.2% of the total cases analysed by the CML. We estimated that in Portugal, 4:100,000 surgeries are subject to litigation. The majority of complaints were due to the patient’s death (75.4%), with laparoscopic cholecystectomy surgeries representing 55.2% of cases. In 76.1% of the cases, the CML believed that there was no violation of leges artis and in 55.2% of cases, no causal nexus was found between the medical practice and the alleged harm. The PPO prosecuted physicians in 6.4% of the cases and resulted in one conviction. Finally, the importance of the CML reports as a relevant technical-scientific tool for judicial decision was evident because these reports significantly (p < 0.05) influenced the prosecutor’s decision, whether to prosecute or not.