The term “forensic medicine” is now used to embrace all aspects of forensic work of a medical nature. In the past, the term was often used interchangeably with “forensic pathology”—the branch of medicine which investigates death. This is further confounded by the recognition of ‘forensic & legal medicine’ or ‘legal and forensic medicine’ as distinct areas of medical specialty practice. These terms now broadly embrace all aspects of medicine involving justice systems, and can vary around the world. The term “clinical forensic medicine” is however one that can be properly applied to that part of medical practice whose scope involves interaction between the law, the judiciary, and the police involving (generally) living persons. Clinical forensic medicine is a term that has become widely used only in the last four decades or so, although the phrase has been used at least since 1951 in the UK, when the national Association of Police Surgeons (which became the Association of Forensic Physicians in 2003 until it in turn was replaced by the Faculty of Forensic & Legal Medicine of the Royal College of Physicians of London) was first established.