Marie Palmer

Marie Palmer is an occupational therapist who provides medico-legal expert witness services through Marie Palmer Medico Legal Services, and has been named Occupational Therapy Expert Witness of the Year in England at the Corporate INTL Global Awards 2025. She applies her clinical expertise as an occupational therapist to the demands of litigation, preparing independent assessments and reports for use in legal proceedings.

Her practice provides expert witness support in clinical negligence and personal injury litigation, an area where an occupational therapist's insight into a person's daily functioning, rehabilitation needs and care requirements can be central to a case. Marie Palmer conducts occupational therapy, rehabilitation and care assessments and produces reports based on them, translating clinical observation into evidence that solicitors, insurers and the courts can rely upon when quantifying needs and losses.

Acting as an expert witness requires not only clinical knowledge but also a thorough understanding of the legal framework in which such evidence is used. Marie Palmer has undertaken training in the legal process, including the Woolf Reforms and the Civil Procedure Rules that govern the conduct of expert evidence in England and Wales. This grounding helps ensure that her reports meet the procedural and evidential standards expected of experts, and that her opinions are presented with the independence and clarity the courts demand.

She receives instructions from both solicitors and insurance companies, acting on behalf of defendants and claimants, and also undertakes single joint expert instructions where a single expert is appointed to advise both sides. This breadth of instruction reflects a reputation for balanced, impartial assessment, since an expert witness owes an overriding duty to the court rather than to the party who instructs them. The ability to work effectively across claimant, defendant and joint instructions is a mark of an experienced and trusted medico-legal practitioner.

Occupational therapy expert witness work sits at the meeting point of healthcare and law, calling for careful, evidence-based evaluation of how injury or negligence has affected an individual's ability to live and function, together with the professional detachment required to give reliable opinion evidence. Through Marie Palmer Medico Legal Services, she offers solicitors and insurers a specialist source of such assessments in clinical negligence and personal injury matters. The Corporate INTL Global Awards 2025 recognition as Occupational Therapy Expert Witness of the Year in England reflects her standing in this specialised field.