48 Part II: Challenges and opportunities tions to further improve the expert opinions submitted to the courts. • can have external financial support through grants and special programmes which enable them to provide subsidised forensic examinations for those unable to pay. These and many other political, financial and professional factors contribute to the positive attitude to independent forensic services in Georgia, even where these services are scarce and have extremely limited technical and financial possibilities. The establishment of a strong independent forensic medical institution in the non-governmental sector, or unification and strengthening of existing independent services with adequate strong financial, legislative and technical support, has the potential to fundamentally change the forensic medical field in Georgia. This would create a positive competitive environment between governmental and non-governmental forensic medicine sectors and provide for highly qualified forensic medical investigations with clinical and laboratory examinations independent from the state system. In this system there would be room for utilising the internationally approved methods of medical documentation and thus fulfil the obligation of every doctor to provide effective forensic examinations.