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AL SLT | OT es anh wes testify against iim. 4 ‘doctor’to take the stuY oy a witness,’ ;but ‘all you can. get ove ot him is a . ‘grudging acknowle dgment char goad oll : : * Doce Frebish may have forgotten to wash = “his hands before taking out Mrs. Smith’s ‘uterus. instead. of her “tonsils, ‘and uhat | jhe may have absent-mindedly ‘ Ieft. a0 7 sponge in her abdomen,’ but thar this ‘| “could -happen_ to any of us,” and ccr- 4 dtainly couldn’t’ be considered negligent. : 2 PLAYBOY: Aren’t you exaggerating a “bit? - | book, has been written. about things left “Just a minute, doctor, I'll put on my "glasses. Oops! Where are my glasses?” ‘most: doctors: “privately ‘do deplore this 12 } privately of incompetent colleagues gen- >3 erally regarded as disgraces to their - ‘ profession. “But Mel,” they say, “don’t - : ask me to testify against him. My insur. | ? ° dance would be canceled.” I can't really 26 008 “ | say I blame them; if you ever do actually: ~ against a another doctor's flagrant and 4 ‘i perhaps tragic malpractice, he’s regarded las a “stoolie” and will be ostracized for ‘life. Score another victory for the con- ftrying to fight. Is it any wonder my : name is anathema to these people? ;. But you know, 1 take pride in the fact. ‘that there’s an instructor in one San; ? Francisco medical ‘school whe asks his . : students, “What man has dong, the most | j for medicine in the past century?” They : name, Pasteur, Lister. He says. “No— if Melvin ‘Belli, because the son of x bitch has made medical men conscientious ; ‘ about their courtroom testimony, and has made lawyers learn medicine.” PLAYBOY: Is a background in medicine ! essential for a lawyer? ~ i BELLI: Absolutely. In. our courts today, !~, three fourths of the criminal and ‘civil Po cases involve some understanding of -; some aspect of medicine and medical : practice. If a general trial lawyer doesn’t : cultivate for himself something beyond NT layman's knowledge of medical fields, he ' cuts himself off from, essential informa- 2 nae tN oem og arti mee. j-essential service. ‘i bimself than to be a jockstrap for some on e~him to arrange nat only ta see a com. _ plete autopsy but to Iearn firsthand " about surgical procedures of every sort, to sit in on skin grafts, bone grafts, plas- ~ tie surgery. I advise him to leart the * functions -of surgical instruments (ener : OWW AH ih * {get a doctor to take the stand and testify - Sate eee een eat Saat cece ee } Tare? a ; {neue You think so? Listen, an entire. - in: patients—not just, sponges and. for- a 4 4 ceps, but rings, wrist watches, even eye-.. ° glasses, for God's sake. Imagine: “What... .time is it, ‘nurse? I'vé: lost my watch.”.°* ~- “Now I- have’ personal knowledge that * 4 sort of thing. :A nurmer have told me: spiracy. This is the sort- of- thing I’m ..--. tion, and he deprives his client of an 7 Every Jaw student I - * mect, if he indicates to me that he wants . t-to do something more worth while with insurance company, or to keep some _ corporation’s legal skirts clean, I advise . phermalia . dures. + where ted . newlalye paid off for me, camong wae hundreds and hundreds of times that ic has. Vhis was as seeote as inerely knowing a word, a mediz _ st very sanple cise of * term, when J heard it. I was cross-exium- ‘ining 2 doctor who contemptuously attributed several of any plaintilf's com-, . - plaints to “amenorrhea.” When I gol up -to present my argument co the jury, |: had a medical dictionary in my hand. 1 "7 read aloud the meaning of that word: it wasn't something with which my male. client was tikely to be afilicted. It means : “irregular nienstruation.” My client won .a handsome award. By now I probably | know as much medicine as I do law. _ Here in my office I’ve collected a bigger medical library than is owned by proba- _bly any doctor in San Francisco. It rivals ‘my Jaw Libr ary—in which 29 of the books are my own, by the way. — . PLAYBOY: How do you find the time to study medicine, write books, give _lcc-. tures, teach law maintain your overflowing calendar of. personal-injury cases? + BELLI: Well, “somehow you manage to . get done what you feel has to be donc— especially if you don’t see anybody clse courses—and still doing it. And besides, I love ‘my work. °: But J sometimes wish I could bea svere- wolf, with wwo lives—the life I have now and another life. I yearn for the quie- tude and the thoroughness of dealing ): with only a few cases. The way it is now. [have to budget my time like a whore . when the fleet's in, This morning I've _ been on the telephone, about differen “eases, with Canada, New York Cie. Pittsburgh, exchanged some cables with Hong Kong. ‘need time to work on my autobiog- _ raphy. I've been’ collecting stuff for 15 years. It’s going to be big. And it's real- ' ly going to lay into all those Lasturds. i PLAYBOY: Who do you mean by “ull 1 those bastards"? 1 BELLI: You know: Bobby Kennedy, J. ' Edgar, the A: M.A. the A.B: A., the i in- surance companies, ad infinitum. PLAYBOY: Don’t you sometimes feel that’! you can Alford? you’ "ve earned a few more enemies than ! ‘The Virgin Ishiuids, and I've - BELLU: Maybe so. Maybe I should have | better sense than to take them all on _ headfirst and simultancously. Because you know what I'm scared ef in this: , Ollice coday? Vhe big frame-upt Pm al- ;, Ways telling myself 1 have to ‘watch ny! 7 tonguc, My fault is that of Adlai Steven- . { son. He likes to mitke cracks, too. It cost - ! him the Presidency. But whatever the - ; Lost, I've got to fight for what [think i. right--and against what IT think is ces. i perately wrong—or I wouldn't think much of myself as a human ocing. » I've told you how in my carly dass: i -I began to acquire my bitterness ag:is- ithe Buy, with a billy, - the. catrenche oe PER a Pec OS WL CTR PES ne.