The Iranian legal medicine organization, as an independent and specialized organization in the Judiciary of the Islamic Republic of Iran, with the mandate of finding the truth and helping in establishment of justice in the society, provides expert opinions in the field of forensic medicine, based on scientific, legal and juridical principles, for the competent authorities.
Legal medicine and its subspecialties, like other fields of medicine, have undergone significant developments in recent decades and numerous new aspects have emerged in this field. Nowadays, considering the complexity and diversity of crimes, discovering the truth without using the new scientific resources and modern technologies of forensic medicine, as well as high quality expert opinions, would be very difficult, if not impossible.
The recent history of legal medicine in Iran dates back to 1922, when the first Office of Legal Medicine, affiliated with and based in the Ministry of Justice, was established. However, clinical forensic examinations were usually performed by physicians in their private offices until 1942, when the Office of Legal Medicine in the Palace of Justice started its work, including clinical forensic examinations. Following the developments in criminalistics and increasing the need for its services by judicial authorities, the Office was upgraded to a General Directorate an eventually became an independent organization (LMO) working under the auspices of the Head of the Judiciary.
According to the current statistics, LMO has more than 360 branches throughout the country and issues nearly 2500000 certificates and reports regarding bodily damages and other legal requests, of which 80% relate to clinical examinations, 1% to specialized medical commissions, 15% to laboratory investigations, and 4% to post mortem examinations and autopsies.
The main activities of LMO include:
- Providing expert opinions on clinical examinations ( general & specialized)
- Providing expert opinions on the deceased, including : forensic autopsy and determining the cause of death ,verifying the identification
- Providing expert opinions on laboratory investigation ( toxicology , pathology , serology and DNA typing )
- Providing expert opinions on referred cases regarding medical malpractice , physical injuries , cause of death and psychiatric problems through specialized medical commissions
- Management of dead bodies in disaster situations
- Conducting research projects
- Educational activities (internal and external) as well as training courses for medical students; forensic medicine, occupational medicine, and psychiatry residents, and law students.
The above mentioned activities are directed by different departments of the organization which include: Medical and Laboratory Affairs, Research and Educational Affairs, Administrative and Financial Support, Information Technology Services, Performance Assessment and Complaints Office, Public Relations and International Affairs, Security Services, Legal Affairs, and LMO Research Center.
