Book excerpt: Awareness of the law is an essential part of any medical practice manager's role and is becoming even more important as patients and employees are becoming more litigation conscious. Every doctor in general practice must take note of the legal rights of different classes of people such as patients, employees, visitors to the surgery, and suppliers of goods and services to the practice, to ensure that these rights are not infringed in any way. Additionally the doctor must have a general knowledge of his/her own rights and how to seek redress when he/she is wronged. This handbook is designed to provide a practical guide to the law in easily understandable language and does not pretend to be a formal textbook on the law. It describes the main features of the law that are likely to impact a medical general practice, in a user-friendly well-illustrated fashion. Complex legal minutiae have been stripped away to help the non-lawyer gain an understanding of the law.