Expert Witness Journal Issue 68 August 2026 - Flipbook - Page 73
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Capacity assessments for residence and care
should not be arti昀椀cially separated where the
decisions are factually interrelated. Assessors
should consider whether an individual’s care
needs dictate the type of accommodation
available.
Agewise
Medicolegal
Experts
Clinicians and legal practitioners should be alert
to the frontal lobe paradox, where an individual
may present well in formal assessments but lack
the ability to implement decisions in practice,
i.e. individual’s ability to “talk the talk” but not
“walk the walk”.
Agewise Medicolegal Experts provide geriatricians, old age psychiatrists, general
practitioners and elderly care nursing experts to instructing solicitors and barristers
to assist the Courts in matters of liability, causation, condition and prognosis,
professional negligence, personal injury and issues around mental capacity and in
particular testamentary capacity.
Our consultants, GPs and nursing experts all have a long experience of working in
the NHS and are fully up to date in current practice. Dr Dan Lee is the Principal
Geriatrician and has over 20 years of working as an NHS consultant in the Royal
Free Hospital, London, a busy London teaching hospital, as well as working in
community based multidisciplinary frailty teams. He now works in the Cleveland
Clinic London as a consultant on the Acute Medical Assessment Unit.
Commissioners should consider the practical
consequences of a 昀椀nding of capacity in one
domain but not another. In particular, whether a
capacitous residence decision could undermine
the ability to deliver a care package assessed as
being in the individual’s best interests.
All our clinicians have many years of experience in managing acute illness and
disability in older people as well as experience of producing medicolegal reports.
They have also all also received formal training in medicolegal report writing. In
addition, we have subspecialist expertise in life expectancy estimation, dementia,
depression, mental capacity, care home standards of care and stroke. We take
instruction both nationally and internationally and will assess clients in their own
residence should they be too frail to travel to our private rooms.
The court retains the ability to depart from
expert evidence on capacity where the facts
demonstrate that the expert’s analysis does not
withstand scrutiny, reinforcing the importance
of thorough and well-reasoned capacity
assessments.
Contact: Ruth Kriegel
Telephone: 020 7117 2551 | Email: admin@agewiseml.co.uk
Website: www.agewiseml.co.uk
Address:
London Office, 184 Southstand
Highbury Stadium Square
London, N5 1FJ
Alternate Address:
Cardiff Office
10 Heol Y Felin
Cardiff, CF5 4BT
Dr Linda Monaci
Consultant Clinical Neuropsychologist
Medico-legal assessments for suspected or known brain injury and/or
brain dysfunction in Personal Injury and Medical Negligence claims
• Acquired brain injury
• Cognitive dysfunction
• Stroke
• Epilepsy
• Mental capacity assessments
• Post-concussion syndrome
• Anoxia
• Dementia
• Neuropsychiatric conditions
• Alcohol and drug abuse
Medico-legal services: Instructions from Claimants, Defendants and as a Single Joint Expert. Assessments can also be carried out in Italian.
Dr Monaci has a good knowledge of Swedish and Spanish and has experience of working through interpreters.
Dr Monaci has completed the Cardiff University Bond Solon Expert Witness Certificates.
Dr Monaci receives approximately 60-70% instructions from Claimants and 40-30% from Defendants. In April 2024, Dr Monaci counted
each new instruction received in the previous 12 months and found the percentages were as follows: 58% Claimant, 37% Defendant and
5% Jointly instructed. In April 2025, Dr Monaci calculated that in the previous 12 months, the split was divided as follows: 73% Claimants,
24% Defendants and 3% jointly instructed.
Main consulting rooms (nationwide locations):
Consultations for medico-legal services are available in London, Guildford, Horsham, Leatherhead and Southampton.
Assessments in care homes and in individuals' home may also be possible when based on clinical needs.
Clinical services are available in Surrey. Available for travel throughout the UK and abroad.
Correspondence address:
Email: linda@monaciconsultancy.com
www.monaciconsultancy.com
EXPERT WITNESS JOURNAL
71
AUGUST 2026
