Independent forensic medical services in Georgia defend their professional independence, the medical professional regulations and safeguards are less prevalent. In spite of the abovementioned restrictions and limitations the independent forensic medical service has gained the respect and trust of the Georgian population. Factors contributing to this increased popularity include the following: • The monopolisation of forensic medical examinations in one specialised body under the Ministry of Justice has created a need for alternative independent forensic examinations. • The expert conclusions of state forensic doctors contain less medical and more legislative information, caused by an increasing focus on legislative regulations, pushing medical professional considerations into the background. • State forensic doctors are obliged to issue only absolute and strict conclusions in the form of answers to questions posed by legal bodies – judges, prosecutors, legal investigators. These conclusions are rarely based on modern forensic investigation standards such as the Istanbul Protocol and cannot give a comprehensive picture of the situation under investigation. • The official methods of forensic medical documentation are required to be approved by the Ministry of Health; the flexibility of the approval procedure varies by case. This makes it difficult for state forensic doctors to adopt internationally approved standardised documentation methods. As opposed to these shortcomings, independent forensic medical services: • are free to use any internationally approved modern form of documentation, such as the Istanbul Protocol, as well as other professional guidelines and textbooks without limitation and can issue conclusions based on modern international standards and science. • can have regular and reciprocal connections and free professional collaboration with doctors specialised in other fields, international colleagues and organisa- 47