LEGAL MEDICINE — VOL. 01 NO. 01 — JUNE 2026 SUBSCRIBE
Legal Medicine
A publication on the law that governs medical practice in California.
VOL. 01 · NO. 01 · INAUGURAL EDITION · JUNE 2026
§01 — EDITOR'S NOTE

What Legal Medicine Is For

Resources and perspectives on the practice of medicine, the state of regulation, and the limits placed upon doctors navigating compliance and patient-centered care.

LUCIEN DERRY · EDITOR · 55 WORDS
§02 — EDITION ONE · THE COLUMNS
01
DISCIPLINE & THE BOARD

What Doctors Actually Lose Their Licenses For

It is almost never the big malpractice case. It is the records. The Medical Board of California is, in practice, a records-quality enforcement agency.

Lucien Derry 680 words
~3 min read
02
PRIVACY & DATA

The CMIA Bites Twice

California's medical-privacy statute is not a slightly stricter HIPAA. It is an entirely separate exposure with a private right of action and statutory damages.

Lucien Derry 720 words
~3 min read
03
OPERATIONS & SAFETY

The Binder in the Drawer

Your SB 553 workplace violence prevention plan exists. It is in a binder. No one has opened it since the day you signed it.

Lucien Derry 640 words
~3 min read
04
AI & DIGITAL HEALTH

AB 3030 Does Not Cover Your AI Scribe (Probably)

The statute is narrower than the vendor talking points. Most of what is being sold into California clinics this year does not actually fall under it. The exposure is somewhere else.

Lucien Derry 710 words
~3 min read
05
EMPLOYMENT & FEHA

Two Trainings, Not One

SB 1343 compliance is a process requirement. FEHA liability is an outcome. Practices that conflate the two keep losing the same case in different rooms.

Lucien Derry 690 words
~3 min read
§03 — MASTHEAD & COLUMNS
EDITOR
Lucien Derry
Writes the editorial line. Reads the cases, the citations, and the contracts. Most columns appear under the editor's byline at launch; named contributors will be added as the publication grows.
01
Discipline & the Board
A close read of Medical Board of California decisions, scope-of-practice law, and the disciplinary cases that change how careful practitioners should work.
02
Privacy & Data
HIPAA, the Confidentiality of Medical Information Act, breach response, vendor BAAs, and the contracts that determine real exposure.
03
Operations & Safety
Cal/OSHA, SB 553, facility safety, staff training, and what regulators look at when they walk in the door.
04
AI & Digital Health
AB 3030, EHR governance, AI vendor contracts, and the gap between what digital-health vendors say and what their tools do.
05
Employment & FEHA
The Fair Employment and Housing Act, mandatory training, NDAs after AB 749, leave law, and the soft spots in practice HR.
06
Cases
Public-record write-ups of Board decisions, Cal/OSHA citations, HHS resolution agreements, and settlements worth reading.