Mental capacity and nutritional decision-making intersect in brain injury, dementia, and end-of-life cases. A dietitian expert witness can address best interests assessments, artificial nutrition decisions, and the standard of care in capacity-affected patients.

The ketogenic diet is an established and evidence-based treatment for drug-resistant epilepsy in children, and increasingly in adults. It is a high-fat, low-carbohydrate, protein-restricted dietary regime that induces and sustains a state of ketosis, altering the brain's primary fuel source in a way that reduces seizure frequency and severity in a significant proportion of patients. For children who have failed multiple anticonvulsant medications, it can be transformative. It

In FII and perplexing presentation cases, nutrition is often the presenting feature. An HCPC-registered dietitian on the proper scope of dietetic expert evidence, and the standard-of-proof discipline these cases demand.

Criminal cases involving nutritional neglect require a dietitian expert who can differentiate medical complexity from inadequate care and assess whether a child's or adult's nutritional presentation is consistent with neglect or explicable on other grounds.

ARFID and restrictive eating disorders create complex medicolegal issues in civil, criminal, and coronial proceedings. A dietitian expert witness can interpret nutritional presentation, assess standard of care, and address causation in cases involving eating and feeding difficulties.

Dehydration in hospital patients is a distinct clinical negligence issue from malnutrition, with its own failure patterns and causative mechanisms. A dietitian expert witness can assess fluid management, monitoring failures, and whether dehydration contributed to deterioration or death.

Errors in total parenteral nutrition and home parenteral nutrition management are a serious cause of patient harm. A dietitian expert witness can assess whether PN prescribing, monitoring, and management met accepted clinical standards and whether failures caused harm.

Care home malnutrition negligence is an increasing area of clinical litigation. A dietitian expert witness can assess whether nutritional screening, care planning, and dietary intervention met an acceptable standard in care home settings and whether failures caused harm.

Bariatric surgery negligence claims frequently involve failures in pre-operative assessment, post-operative monitoring, and long-term nutritional support. A dietitian expert witness can determine whether the standard of nutritional care met professional guidelines and whether failures caused harm.

When a patient dies in hospital and nutrition may have been a factor, a dietitian expert witness can assist the coroner in determining whether nutritional care met an acceptable standard and whether it contributed to the outcome. A practical guide for legal professionals and coroners.

Learn when a dietitian should be involved after brain injury and how delayed referral may impact nutrition, recovery, and clinical outcomes.

Rick Miller is a UK Registered Dietitian providing independent expert witness evidence in clinical nutrition and hospital malnutrition negligence cases.

Dietetic referral timing is one of the most common points of dispute in hospital malnutrition litigation. Allegations are frequently framed around delay — particularly where referral was triaged as routine rather than urgent. However, dietetic referral negligence does not arise simply because a patient was not reviewed immediately. The legal analysis is more structured. Hospitals triage referrals based on screening scores, intake, nil-by-mouth duration, metabolic stability

Dietitian explains evidence-based dietary management of IBD, with clinical insights and medico-legal considerations.

Understand resting metabolic rate testing: clinical uses, medico-legal value, and why it matters for patients and solicitors.

Blocking blue light and blue light blocking glasses have moved from the biohacking world to mainstream. But do you need to do it?

Explore the risks of abdominal obesity and metabolic syndrome, including legal implications of missed diagnosis.

Functional Bloating, more than just a nuisance Most people experience gas and bloating after a large meal. When it becomes a daily problem, however, it is more than a minor inconvenience. Functional bloating can affect sleep, confidence and quality of life. In some cases, it may also be a sign of missed or mismanaged clinical care with consequences that extend beyond the consulting room. As a consultant dietitian working in both private practice and medico-legal contexts, I r