Independent expert reports, assessment clinics, and the robust governance and administration that surround them. Expert led, across the niche and the complex.
Make an enquiryThe expert's duty is to the court, and it overrides any obligation to the person instructing or paying.
CPR 35.3Instructed by claimant and defendant alike. We decline where a conflict exists, and say why.
Every report is written and signed by the expert who formed the opinion. No ghostwriting, no delegation to a medical writer.
Clinic programmes and records handling built around group litigation, with the single complex instruction given the same attention. Neither is a compromise for the other.
Reports compliant with CPR Part 35 and Practice Direction 35, written to answer the question actually asked, whether that is breach of duty, causation, or condition and prognosis. Preliminary and screening opinions where you need to know quickly whether a claim is worth running.
Face to face examination with the report written from it. Where a group of claimants shares a common index event, or one alleged mechanism, the work becomes repeatable and schedulable, so we run it as a clinic programme rather than a queue of separate instructions.
The critical but laborious work that surrounds an instruction, done by a team that already handles service personnel medical records under Ministry of Defence contract. Records retrieval and sorting, bundle preparation and pre-screening, booking and chasing, formatting to your house requirements, and invoicing. Available on its own, without an accompanying instruction for a report.
Scope. We give breach of duty opinions only where the care in question falls inside the expert's own field and current practice, and we say so at the outset where it does not. We work in England and Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland run under different rules and we will say so rather than take the instruction. We do not undertake MedCo soft tissue reporting. Where a case falls outside what we can properly opine on, we will tell you at the letter of instruction stage, not after the records arrive.
MSc
Practice DirectorAlun is the first point of contact for an instructing firm. Whether we can take a case, what it will cost, when you will have the report, and the conflict check run before any papers are accepted all come through him.
He is not a clinician and gives no clinical opinion. His background is thirty years of operational leadership across military and commercial security, including investigations and due diligence instructed by law firms, and an MSc in Security, Conflict and International Development.
MBChB MSc DTM&H PGCert MAcadMEd FRCA FIMC (RCSEd.) FFRRHHEd
Prehospital, retrieval and transfer medicine, anaesthesia and traumaConsultant Anaesthetist at East Lancashire Teaching Hospitals, and Consultant in Prehospital Emergency Medicine with the North West Air Ambulance. Holds GMC subspecialty accreditation in prehospital emergency medicine.
Fellow of the Faculty of Remote, Rural and Humanitarian Healthcare, and Deputy Chair of the Clinical Standards Committee at the Faculty of Pre-Hospital Care, both at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. Humanitarian deployments including the Sierra Leone Ebola response, Ukraine, and the UK-Med field hospital in Gaza, for which he was awarded the Humanitarian Medal.
MBBS MSc MRCGP DCMM DMM FAWM FEWM
General practice, environmental extremes, toxicology and traumaGeneral practitioner, with a career-long theme of expedition, humanitarian and austere medicine delivered globally across high risk, hostile and inhospitable domains.
Senior clinical and advisory roles with the International Committee of the Red Cross, including board and strategic committee involvement, the HALO Trust and Medics4Ukraine. Course design and quality assurance in CBRN for UK Defence, the World Health Organization and the ICRC. Appointed MBE for training the Syrian White Helmets in Iraq. Sits on the UK working group on frostbite and non-freezing cold injury.
MBChB FRCR
Neuroradiology, brain and spinal imagingConsultant Neuroradiologist in Lancashire. Reports on imaging of the brain, head and neck and spine, and on the interpretation and reporting of that imaging by others.
On the GMC Specialist Register in clinical radiology since 2018, and a trainer recognised by the General Medical Council.
MB ChB
Trauma and orthopaedic surgeryConsultant Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgeon at Raigmore Hospital, Inverness. On the GMC Specialist Register in trauma and orthopaedic surgery since 2000, and a trainer recognised by the General Medical Council.
Commissioned into the Royal Army Medical Corps while at medical school in Edinburgh and served eighteen years, deploying as a surgical trainee and then as a consultant to hostile and austere environments. Appointed OBE in the 2023 New Year Honours for services to UK health support overseas, particularly in Ukraine, and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Deployments with UK-Med, the HALO Trust, the World Health Organization and the Primary Trauma Care Foundation.
MBChB MPharm (Hons) FRCS
Vascular and endovascular surgeryConsultant Vascular and Endovascular Surgeon at Manchester Royal Infirmary, Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, and Medical Director of AVA Clinics, Manchester. On the GMC Specialist Register in vascular surgery since 2022. NIHR Principal Investigator for clinical trials.
Reports 60 to 80 instructions a year, including high value negligence claims, split roughly three to one between claimant and defence. Instructed on liability screening and triage, breach of duty and causation, and condition and prognosis. Has prepared joint statements under CPR Part 35.12 and given oral evidence under oath. Holds Bond Solon civil procedure and report writing certificates. Previously Consultant Vascular and Endovascular Surgeon at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, and Chief Registrar for Surgery at Manchester Foundation Trust.
A further consultant is joining the panel. Specialty, registration number and areas of opinion are published on appointment, not before.
MB ChB BSc (Hons) FRCP Edin DCH FCEM
Emergency medicine, adult and paediatricConsultant in Adult and Paediatric Emergency Medicine, NHS Fife. On the GMC Specialist Register in emergency medicine, with the paediatric emergency medicine sub specialty, since 2010.
Senior Advisor in Emergencies (Medical) at the Norwegian Red Cross, and previously the headquarters specialist in adult and paediatric emergency medicine for the International Committee of the Red Cross, acting as its global technical referent for emergency care. Member of the World Health Organization technical working group that produced the guidance on mass casualty burns. Deployments including Gaza, the Sierra Leone Ebola response, Iraq, Lebanon, Nepal and Myanmar.
MDS FDSRCS FEWM
GDC 79255
Dentistry, dental and facial traumaDentist, registered with the General Dental Council. Founder of Wilderness Expedition Dentistry and Director of Dentistry at the Team5 Medical Foundation.
Honorary Clinical Professor in Extreme Medicine and module lead for Wilderness Expedition Dentistry at the University of Exeter. Faculty member for World Extreme Medicine and for the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, and contributing author of the dental chapter in the Oxford Handbook of Expedition and Wilderness Medicine. Has delivered facial trauma training for doctors, surgeons and combat medics in Ukraine.
| Hand selected | Experts are recruited and onboarded, not listed. Vetting and reference checks before joining. |
| In current practice | Substantive clinical practice in the field they opine on, with a licence to practise and full registration. |
| Bond Solon trained | Formal expert witness training, funded by the practice as a commitment to professional standards and to the quality of the panel. |
| Corporate indemnity | Professional indemnity extending to medico-legal expert work, carried by the practice. |
| Demonstrable scope | A stated scope of expertise, with instructions outside it declined. Full CVs and court experience come with the terms of business. |
| Conflicts checked | Checked at instruction, before the papers are accepted. We take claimant and defence instructions, so it is run as a step and recorded. |
Meridian Medicolegal is a trading name of ASG Rescue Ltd.
Operated under ASG Rescue's ISO 9001:2015 certified quality management system, with document control, a risk register and tracked turnaround against deadline.
Run as a step before papers are accepted, not left to memory. We take claimant and defence instructions, so it is checked every time and recorded.
Retrieval, sorting, bundle preparation and pre-screening, run under documented compliance and governance. Cyber Essentials Plus, and registered with the Information Commissioner's Office with a named Data Controller.
Meridian runs as its own practice. The expert's duty to the court is unaffected by anything else the company does, and instructions are declined where that could be questioned.
You will get a prompt, direct answer on whether we can accept the instruction, what it will cost and when you will have it. If we are not the right experts for the matter at hand we will say so then, not after the records arrive.