ABOUT US
We exist to equip, encourage and inspire medico-legal practicioners in their day to day practice. Our aim is to facilitate learning and better communication across the medical and legal professions.
We do this by providing high quality, innovative training and events, and encouraging networking between lawyers and doctors at our annual conferences and special events. Inspire MediLaw are proud to have an experienced team of medical experts and clinical negligence lawyers devising, refining and delivering our training programmes.
Find out more about our work below, and read our Directors' profiles here.
Caren Scott
Managing Director
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Caren Scott
Managing Director
Caren is the founder and Managing Director of Inspire MediLaw. She has twenty years of management experience in the healthcare industry, and a real passion for improving access to justice for patients and their families, as well as for the clinicians themselves. She explains:An expert’s opinion really matters. It’s vital for the judicial process that medical experts understand what is required of them when giving evidence, and that they do it well and with integrity.Caren started out studying Business Studies at Stafford College of Further Education and then became a legal secretary before starting her career in the NHS as a medical secretary. As Practice Manager to a group of Neurosurgeons, she was responsible for the seamless management of a busy clinical practice. She thrived on the challenges of managing the partnerships between patients, surgeons, management, medical and legal professionals, nursing and support staff. Caren left Oxford Neurosurgery and Spine Practice in 2012 to set up Medicolegal Management, providing conferences for legal professionals in medical negligence and personal injury, with the aim of educating lawyers in medico-legal issues. At the same time, she worked as an interim Senior Manager in the NHS, relishing the challenges of successfully turning around cancer performance, wait times for elective surgery, and managing multidisciplinary teams. In 2017 the opportunity arose to launch Inspire Medilaw. Caren approached experienced medico-legal professionals who are passionate and knowledgeable about medical law, which is essential in order to inspire and motivate lawyers and clinicians to make a positive change in their area of practice. With a growing team of respected medical lawyers and experts, Caren seeks to encourage and enable better medico-legal practice across the board. She says:
It's wonderful to receive congratulations and thanks at the end of our training courses. People comment on the quality of the course and excellent faculty. I feel very proud that we facilitate shared learning and best practice with the style and standard of training we run.Her interests include horse riding, travel, reading, cooking for family and friends and spending time with her husband Tim, 3 sons and their families, 3 grandchildren, and Boot the springer spaniel. With so many demands on her time, Caren attributes her focus on the aims of, and need for, Inspire Medilaw to delegate feedback like this:
“This has been an absolutely fantastic course, great content and delivered by experienced expert witnesses & legal practitioners. Highly recommended.”“This course is everything I’d hoped for and more! Excellent, interactive speakers with lots of practical advice and tips. Highly recommended.”
“Fantastic course – a must for everyone doing or considering medical work. Every section of the course is absolutely invaluable.”“A magnificent training opportunity by passionate, experienced experts who deliver the name: Inspire MediLaw. Thank you.”
“I recommend this course to all healthcare professionals, irrespective of whether they wish to become expert witnesses. The experience provided in this course is invaluable.”“This superb course has equipped me with the materials, skills and confidence to begin a career as an expert witness.”
Tim Seymour
Finance and Commercial Director
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Tim Seymour
Finance and Commercial Director
Tim studied Economics / Politics at the University of Sheffield before training as a Chartered Accountant. Tim worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers and then joined a multinational packaging company, becoming Finance Director of the group’s worldwide pharmaceutical division. He then joined ISS as Finance Director of the Integrated Services Division. After 16 years in the private sector, he joined the Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust and has almost 8 years of healthcare experience in a variety of operational, finance and commercial roles including Acting Deputy Director of Finance, Finance Director for Planned Care, Head of Clinical Support Services, Directorate Manager for Theatres and Acting Trust Commercial Director. Tim is married with four daughters. His interests include walking, cricket, classic cars and reading.Sarah Sellars
Legal Director
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Sarah Sellars
Legal Director
Sarah has been involved with Inspire MediLaw since 2018 and was appointed as Legal Director in November 2019. She works with Caren to develop event content which will meet the needs of medico-legal experts and lawyers at all stages of their career, and to plan strategic programmes for their ongoing CPD. She delivers a range of training to our delegates on topics such as working with lawyers, GDPR compliance, CV and marketing tips for experts. In 2009 Sarah qualified as a Clinical Negligence solicitor in a claimant practice, focusing on birth and brain injury claims, alongside orthopaedic, fatal and spinal injury cases. At this time Sarah also joined the Action Against Medical Accidents (AvMA) helpline, dealing with queries from the general public on a range of medical negligence and related issues. She still volunteers on the helpline once a month, as she feels that this free signposting and advice service for patients and their families is invaluable. Following a career break to care for her sons, Sarah spent a year in at the Legal Services Department at the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust. Her role included investigating and preparing the defence for claims against the NOTSS Directorate (Neurology, Orthopaedics, Trauma & Specialist Surgery). Alongside this, Sarah began working as a freelance copy writer. She devises content for electronic and paper communications; websites and social media accounts; marketing materials and awards applications for small businesses. Sarah is passionate about improving communication. She is convinced that medico-legal events which bring lawyers and doctors together will encourage the professions to communicate more confidently together, promoting mutual understanding and resulting in improved practice for both. She is excited to equip medico-legal experts to confidently contribute in litigatio process, and to champion good practice within their clinical settings, both of which will ultimately improve patient experience and safety.Jonathan Moore
Medical Director
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Jonathan Moore
Medical Director
Dr Jonathan Moore has been a GP expert witnesssince 2003. He has been involved in Inspire MediLaw since its inception, offering invaluable advice in the early days and ongoing support since. He was appointed as Medical Director in November 2019. Dr Moore was a GP Partner in Chipping Norton from 1996-2016. His main clinical interests are Palliative Care, ENT & Audiology, Mental Health and Substance Misuse. He was also lead GP in dispensing nationally and active in GP Commissioning. His career long interest in medico-legal practice led to him completing a Masters of Medical Law (LLM) at Cardiff Law School in 1999. He has a well-established expert witness practice, providing expert opinion for all the defence organisations and the NHS Litigation Authority. He also has a busy claimant workload for selected solicitor’s firms with a 60%:40% Defence : Claimant split. He has an active interest in medico-legal education and in 2009 was an inaugural member of the MPS Educational Faculty. He has given lectures and workshops for doctors all over the country. Jonathan was involved in setting up the Oxford Medico-Legal Society in 1998 and remains on the committee. He maintains an active GP clinical practice with a wide portfolio of work including GP practice, Access Hubs, community hospitals, and “out of hours”. He was awarded Fellowship of the Royal College of GP’s in 2013 and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 2004. When not working he enjoys living in the beautiful Cotswolds; and rediscovering life after GP partnership!
Training for Expert Witnesses
His Honour Judge Harris QC explained to delegates at our 2019 Annual Conference, "If you don't have good experts, you have a poor level of justice."
He's right, and we are delighted to welcome medical experts to our Expert Witness Training, where they can consolidate their understanding of the legal principles in clinical negligence litigation, and learn how to discharge their duty to the Court to the highest standard.
Training for medical professionals
We offer additional training to medical experts in practice management and expert familiarisation. In 2020 we are excited to be launching training in report writing to further support our experts' development.
For clinicians not yet started on, or perhaps not interested in, expert witness practice, we provide medico-legal guidance in the form of Inquest training, and will welcome our first delegates to SAI/complaint response training in 2020.
Training for Lawyers
It's crucial to ensure that lawyers are offered regular, comprehensive training in medico-legal issues. We provide training for lawyers across the UK and Ireland, themed by practice area and delivered by highly qualified medical professionals. This adds value to the lawyers' practice.
Learning & Networking together
We are really keen to see lawyers and experts work well together, and seek to open and maintain channels of communication between the two. To this end 2020 will see us host a series of Conversations on Consent, at which lawyers and clinicians will come together to hear, learn, and discuss the law in relation to consent, and its application in practice. We hope to meet you at one of these events!
To keep up with our news & events:
Events page
Twitter: @InspireMediLaw
LinkedIn: @Inspire MediLaw
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