Sir, I read the two articles on clinical negligence in the May and June issues1,2with interest. For the last two years I have, together with a lecturer from the Law Department, facilitated a small group of dental and law students at Plymouth University. As adult learners, the two groups of students have together explored a fictitious case, one clearly related to the realities of dental and legal practice, which resulted in a claim of negligence against the dentist.

Within an enquiry-based learning environment, in addition to evaluating inter-professional engagement, the aim of these pilot sessions was to encourage the dental students to ask relevant questions in relation to the case, and with the help of their legal peers, research and gain an understanding of the legal issues which underpin the practice of dentistry. Hopefully the students will be able to transfer the knowledge they have gained to situations that they might encounter in clinical practice in the future.

Sitting early in the undergraduate programme the sessions provided the dental students with an awareness of the law in relation to patient experience and the final year law students gained an insight into the complexities and pitfalls within dentistry. More time would be needed to fully evaluate the impact of the sessions on the two groups of students and, were they to continue, the sessions would need to be fully integrated into the course curriculum.

The module was presented by the project lead, Cathy Coelho, at the Conference of the Association of Dental Education in Europe.

Much is written about the fears which today's practitioners carry regarding legal redress and the impact it has on clinical practice and I hope by developing a greater understanding of the law during undergraduate training this can be put into some sort of perspective.