Elizabeth Stokes

Elizabeth is an experienced inquest and healthcare advisory lawyer; and for the past 15years has been working with NHS trusts, and independent care home providers and Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) across the north/north east.

Elizabeth regularly acts on behalf of NHS bodies in the Court of Protection in respect of welfare applications and s21a MCA challenges. She regularly works with NHS ICBs and provides robust and pragmatic advice in respect of continuing healthcare, funding disputes and MCA issues.

She also acts on behalf of social care providers providing advice in respect of patient and regulatory issues.

Elizabeth regularly attends HM coroner’s courts, acting on behalf of both acute and mental health NHS trusts and care homes in complex inquests. She has successfully managed cases dealing with complex acute and mental health policy issues, supported multiple witnesses and assessed areas of risk together with robust inquest advocacy.

She provides advice and training on a wide range of issues including; mental capacity and consent, deprivation of liberty safeguards and applications, Court of Protection, inquest law and process, access to healthcare records, CQC compliance, scrutiny and enforcement issues, confidentiality, information sharing, risk and governance issues and serious incident reviews. Her work has also included advising on a range of policy documentation and patient treatment decisions against the legislative and continuously changing regulatory background.

Areas of expertise

• Court of Protection 
• inquests
• mental capacity, consent and treatment decisions
• NHS continuing healthcare and commissioning decisions
• CQC and regulatory issues

The clients she works with

• Integrated Care Boards (ICBs)
• NHS acute and mental health trusts
• private health and social care providers

Podcasts

• Inquests podcast series: episode 1 – “Overview of an inquest”
• Inquests podcast series: episode 2 – “Witness preparation”
• Inquests podcast series: episode 3 – “Giving evidence – what to expect”
• Inquests podcast series: episode 4 – “Article 2 and Juries”
• Inquests podcast series: episode 5 – “Conclusions”
• Inquests podcast series: episode 6 – “Regulation 28/PFD Reports”

Qualifications

• LPC College of Law (2002)
• CPE College of Law – distance learning (2001)
• MA (Hons) Geography, Edinburgh University (1998)

More about Elizabeth

I am a trustee of Tyneside Women’s Health, a women’s mental health charity working across the north east.

I have three children so spend a lot of time on the sidelines of various sports. I really enjoy playing in the North Tyneside Steel band – adult group ‘Precious Metal’ and despite having played for 10 years, every week is as if it is for the first time!