A person who has lived with you for the entire year as a member of your household can
meet the
definition of a qualifying relative even if he or she is not
actually related to you by blood or marriage.
When patients make claims of negligence the process of discovering whether negligence occurred requires investigating medical records, interviewing the involved parties (through sworn depositions), finding experts, sorting out conflicts between the opinions of experts, reinvestigating the records and testimony as new insights are uncovered and then reaching some kind of consensus, if possible, about what
actually occurred and whether those facts
meet the
definition of legal negligence.