Practice Manager: Sue Sanalitro
01223479024
sue@medicalsecretarialservices.org.uk
Dr Munglani: rajeshmunglani@gmail.com
Dr Rajesh Munglani is a Consultant in Pain Medicine and an experienced medicolegal expert witness. He provides independent expert opinion on chronic pain, complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), spinal pain, neuropathic pain and pain after catastrophic injury in personal injury and clinical negligence claims, for claimants, defendants and as a single joint expert.
Over more than 30 years in pain medicine he has combined clinical practice with research, teaching and leadership. He was Editor of Pain News (2018–2025) and Vice President of the British Pain Society (2023–2026), and was made an Honorary Member of the Society in 2022. He founded the Cambridge Annual Medico-Legal Conference and lectures regularly to doctors and lawyers on pain, consent and expert evidence.
Dr Munglani's medico-legal CV can be downloaded
sue@medicalsecretarialservices.org.uk
Dr Munglani: rajeshmunglani@gmail.com
Dr Munglani qualified from St George’s Hospital, University of London, in 1985 and trained in anaesthesia at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge. His research on the neurobiology of chronic pain, at the University of Cambridge and the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, led to his appointment as John Farman Professor of the Royal College of Anaesthetists in 1996.
He was Director of the Pain Relief Service at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, then Consultant and Lead Clinician in Pain Medicine at West Suffolk Hospital for 14 years, and later held posts at Royal Papworth Hospital and, as Honorary Consultant, at St Thomas’ Hospital, London. Since 2024 he has worked in full-time private practice.
He has served the British Pain Society as a Council member, Editor of Pain News (2018–2025) and Vice President (2023–2026), and was made an Honorary Member in 2022. He now sits on the Society’s AI Technology and Information Committee and Scientific Programme Committee, and on the Faculty of Pain Medicine’s Pragmatic Personalised Care project group. In 2010 he founded the Pain Consultants online discussion group, which now has more than 600 members, and he serves on the Council of the London Pain Forum.
He founded the Cambridge Annual Medico-Legal Conference in 2011 and lectures regularly to doctors and lawyers. Recent and forthcoming talks include “The Expert in the Hot Seat: Diagnosing Chronic Pain and Defending the Opinion” (Royal Society of Medicine Pain Section, March 2027); “Litigation and medicolegal issues in regional anaesthesia”, with Nicola Greaney KC (Lord’s, October 2026); the Faculty of Pain Medicine Annual Meeting (December 2025); and an AvMA webinar on complex regional pain syndrome and the pitfalls that lead to claims (October 2024).
Dr Munglani now works mainly in medicolegal practice. He no longer runs a routine clinical practice or performs interventional procedures, but continues to offer occasional clinical opinions, often without charge, to patients and colleagues when care has become stuck.
Dr Munglani has over 20 years' experience as an expert witness and now works principally in medicolegal practice, preparing about 50 reports a year in personal injury and clinical negligence claims. He accepts instructions from claimants and defendants in roughly equal proportion, and as a single joint expert.
Areas of expertise: chronic pain after injury, surgery and trauma, including whiplash and spinal injury; complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS); chronic spinal, neuropathic and post-surgical pain; pain after catastrophic and spinal cord injury; chronic widespread pain and fibromyalgia; functional and somatic presentations; consent, complications and standards of care in regional anaesthesia and pain interventions; opioids, cannabinoids and other medicines in chronic pain; and prognosis, future treatment and care needs.
He has given evidence in court on numerous occasions, including in the High Court, has appeared as an expert before the GMC, and was Associate Advisor to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman on pain medicine (2015–2024). He is listed on the UK Register of Expert Witnesses and the APIL expert witness list, is a member of the Society of Expert Witnesses, and is Bond Solon trained in report writing, courtroom skills and cross-examination.
“I found Dr Munglani to be an impressive expert who was willing to be flexible of mind.” HHJ Glen, De Francisci v Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (County Court at Southampton, May 2024)
Reports are usually completed within 6 to 8 weeks of the appointment, subject to the complexity of the records. Domiciliary visits can also be arranged.
His medico-legal CV can be found
Fees and terms: please contact Dr Munglani's secretary for his current hourly rate and terms of business.
For all medico-legal enquiries please contact Dr Munglani's secretary, Sue Sanalitro: sue@medicalsecretarialservices.org.uk, tel. 01223 479024. Dr Munglani can be contacted directly at rajeshmunglani@gmail.com..
Dr Munglani founded this not-for-profit conference in 2011. It is now organised with Nicola Greaney KC (Chair), Stuart McKechnie KC, Julian Benson, Dr Michael Spencer and Professor Tom Quick, and is held each September at Peterhouse, Cambridge.
The next conference is on Friday 17 September 2027.
Medicolegal and consent
Mehta V, Munglani R, Eyre G, et al. Consenting for spinal cord stimulation: the pitfalls and solution. Current Pain and Headache Reports 2025;29(1):44.
Munglani R, Allder S, Agrawal N. Chronic pain in the medicolegal setting: reframing the narrative and the discussion. Journal of Personal Injury Law 2022;1:7–13.
Munglani R, Knaggs R, Eyre G. Particulate steroids in axial spinal blockade and the increasing role of patient consent. British Journal of Pain 2020;14(2):141–146.
Munglani R. Pain after catastrophic spinal injury. In: McKechnie S, et al. APIL Guide to Catastrophic Injury Claims. 2019 (updated 2025).
Munglani R, Eyre G, Wilkinson P. Consent, our memories and clinical record keeping. Transmitter (Faculty of Pain Medicine), Spring 2022.
Pain News (selected)
From gorillas to goodbyes: a conversation with Rajesh Munglani (interview), June 2025.
The stories that we find ourselves in (2024); Let the wild rumpus begin (2024).
Understanding medicine part 1: Hippocrates and the role of prognosis in medicine (2023).
When we find ourselves in a dark wood (2022); Finding wellness within illness: healing the healers (2022).
Finding out WHO your pain parents are and how to deal with them NICE-ly (2022).
Treating pain NICE-ly, parts 1–3, with Paul Wilkinson (2021).
To prescribe or not to prescribe medical cannabis – that is the question? with Guirguis A and Martini L (2021).
Adverse childhood events and adult chronic pain: dealing with the ACEs that life has dealt you (2020).
Opioids: observing the pendulum of medical practice, with Coupe M (2019).
The not so vital sign, or why there is no stethoscope for pain (2019).
Submitted and in preparation
“Making up patients?” Diagnosis, looping and the changing face of chronic pain (submitted to Pain News).
“Pain speaks with an accent”: culture, presentation and the epidemiology of suffering (Pain News).
CRPS after injury compared with CRPS-like change after immobilisation, and its relationship to functional neurological disorder (submitted).
“Consent, complications and the courts”: medico-legal lessons for regional anaesthesia (for a Royal College of Anaesthetists education journal).
Artificial intelligence and the objective measurement of pain (for Pain News, the British Journal of Pain and the Journal of Personal Injury Law).