Giving evidence: Doctors and the Courts

Dr Rutherford was appointed as Chief Medical Member for the Mental Health Tribunal in 2010, a full-time post which combines management with sitting as a Medical Member of Mental Health Tribunal hearings in England.

She is also an Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist with South London and the Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, with a training role to improve experience of patients, clinicians and trainees at Tribunal hearings. Joan also has a particular interest in evolutionary psychiatry

She is first author of Mental Disorders, Mental Illness and the Family Court, areference guide for non-medical professionals, published in Nov 2021 https://www.bloomsburyprofessional.com/uk/mental-disorders-mental-illness-and-the-family-court-9781526521910/

Joan is a member of two bands, playing the clarinet and soprano saxophone.

She was awarded an OBE in December 2024 for services to the Administration of Justice.

Dr Richard Latham is a Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist at East London NHS Foundation Trust and a founding member of Forensic Psychiatry Chambers. He is an author of The Oxford Handbook of Forensic Psychiatry.  

He has extensive experience providing expert psychiatric evidence in criminal proceedings and the Court of Protection.

Internationally, he works with the Death Penalty Project, delivering joint training for legal and medical professionals in jurisdictions retaining capital punishment.

His interests include sentencing policy, reform of the Mental Health Act and the limits of expert psychiatric evidence in legal decision-making. 

Since 2004 Valerie has been sitting as a part-time judge for the First Tier Tribunal (Mental Health), including in child and adolescent cases.

Since 2022, Valerie has been sitting as a part-time Assistant Coroner for West London Coroner’s Court.

Her diverse practice spans serious criminal cases involving Health & Safety, Inquests, Inquiries, Fraud, Murder & Manslaughter and Sexual Offences. She also has considerable experience in acting before a number of regulators in professional disciplinary proceedings.

She is currently instructed in the Lampard Inquiry and was previously instructed in the Grenfell Tower Inquiry.

Valerie is a qualified mediator and a member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. She is also an ethics and advocacy trainer for Middle Temple.

Valerie has a particular interest in mental health and children and adolescent mental health. She is experienced in vulnerable witness advocacy.

She graduated from St Bartholomew's medical school in 1996 and gained a First-Class BSc in Orthopaedic Science during this period as well as being awarded the Brackenbury and Waring Scholarship in Surgery, the Willett Prize in Surgery and the Jackson Burrows prize in Orthopaedics.

She gained her MRCS in 2000 and subsequently pursued her MD (neurosurgery) at Queen's Square and was the first to discover a particular genetic link in subarachnoid haemorrhage and was awarded the international Galbraith award for this research. 

She did her higher surgical training in neurosurgery on the North-West Thames rotation and decided on a career change after doing an LLM in Medical Law which was gained with a commendation. She has also worked for the BBC (Holby City) and was the main Neurosurgery adviser for 7 years both for the script advice and onset teaching to the actors and has also advised on numerous other medical programmes. She has also sat on the Investigation Committee of the GMC as well as the Investigation Committee of the ICAEW (chartered accountants).