Avma Junior Lawyers Annual Conference (JLAC) 2026

9:30am–9:40am: Chair’s introduction and the Certificate of Competence Scheme

• Speaker: Lisa O’Dwyer, Director of Medico-Legal Services, Avma

9:40am–10:10am: Lived experience: A patient’s painful journey for the truth when healthcare goes wrong

• Speaker: James Titcombe OBE, Chief Executive, Patient Safety Watch
• What it’s like when something goes wrong
• What do injured patients and their families want?
• Facing “the system” alone and the path to finding answers, outcomes/litigation
• The difference that finding Avma made to them

10:10am–11:00am: Litigation skills module — Instructing your expert by an expert: What your expert needs

• Speaker: Dr Nigel Zoltie, Accident & Emergency Consultant and Medicolegal Expert, LNZ Associates Ltd
• Determining the quality of experts before instructing them
• Questioning your expert report
• Optimising the skills, potential assistance, and cooperation of the experts during the case progression
• Managing the dynamics between experts at conference with counsel
• Frequency, type, and content of communication with experts
• What experts think about without prejudice meetings and agendas

11:00am–11:20am: Coffee break

11:20am–12:00pm: Litigation module — Section 75 Consumer Credit Act

• Speaker: Richard Mumford, Barrister, 1 Crown Office Row
• How can s75 CCA apply to claims relating to medical treatment?
• Who can claim on it?

12:00pm–12:30pm: Applying for the Certificate of Competence Scheme

• Speaker: Lisa O’Dwyer, Director of Medico-Legal Services, Avma

12:30pm–1:30pm: Lunch break

1:20pm–2:00pm: Litigation module — Litigation capacity

• Speaker: Dr Oliver Lewis, Barrister, Doughty Street Chambers
• Capacity: How to assess your client’s capacity and how to safeguard against fluctuating capacity
• Steps you need to take to declare your client as a vulnerable client
• The Equalities Act and using it to bring a clinical negligence action
• Use of intermediaries

2:00pm–3:00pm: The Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF)

• Speaker:  Dr Lauren Morgan, Director, Morgan Human Systems Ltd and Chartered Human Factors Specialist

3:00pm–3:15pm: Coffee break

3:15pm–4:15pm: Litigation module — Issues in medical expert evidence

• Speaker: Lucy Bill, Barrister, 3PB Barristers
• Recent case law on expert medical evidence
• Criticism of experts at trial — should an expert who has been criticised in a previous hearing be dropped in other pending cases?
• Pitfalls and management of expert evidence

4:15–4:55pm: Wellness: Looking after yourself

• Speaker: Dr Linda Kenward, BACP Senior Registered Psychotherapist and Trauma-Informed Trainer
• What are the effects of remote working?
• Your mental health, how to ask for help, how to spot signs of mental ill health
• An introduction to informed trauma
• What is counselling and therapy?
• Finding a counsellor and signposting
• What can clients expect from counselling?
• Managing bereavement particular considerations

5:00pm: Chair’s roundup and end of day 1

9:00am–9:05am: Chair’s introduction and recap

• Speaker: Lisa O’Dwyer, Director of Medico-Legal Services, Avma

9:05am–9:50am: Healthcare Provision module — Integrated Care Boards (ICBs)

• Speaker: Sarah Idelbi, Barrister, 39 Essex Chambers
• What is an ICB and what is their role?
• How do they fund and plan NHS services in their local area?
• What are the different considerations and challenges ICBs have to take into account from region to region?
• Who ICBs are accountable to and how to hold the ICB to account
• What is their responsibility for identifying and tackling inequalities in healthcare outcomes?

9:50am–10:30am: Healthcare provision and patient safety module — National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death (NCEPOD)

• Speaker: Marisa Mason, Chief Executive, NCEPOD

10:30am–10:45am: Coffee break

10:45am–11:45am: Litigation module — Causation in clinical negligence

• Speaker: Jasper Gold, Barrister, 1 Crown Office Row

11:45am–12:45pm: Healthcare provision and patient safety module — Professional Regulation (Nursing and Midwifery Council/General Medical Council)

• Speaker: David Juckes, Barrister, Halisham Chambers
• The professional regulation triage process
• Types of cases that go before tribunal
• Preparing for the process
• A case study
• How to support patients referring to healthcare professionals to professional regulators

12:45pm–1:30pm: Lunch break

1:30pm–2:30pm: Litigation module — Actions in private hospital care

• Speaker: Elizabeth-Anne Gumbell KC, Barrister, 1 Crown Office Row
• Special considerations when suing private medical care providers — identifying the tortfeasor, treating healthcare professional or the hospital?
• Private care subcontracted through NHS
• The rise of the private GP
• Principles of vicarious liability
• Things to consider when suing a private care provider

2:30pm–3:15pm: Litigation module — Private healthcare insurance issues

• Speaker: Dr Sheila Bloomer, Associate Lecturer, University of York
• Effects of Iain Patterson’s insurance position on his patients
• Introduction of the Medical Defence Organisation’s Voluntary Code of Practice — Core principles and when it applies

3:15pm–3:30pm: Chair’s roundup and conference close

• Speaker: Lisa O’Dwyer, Director of Medico-Legal Services, Avma