2 years and counting – the MCLAP website journey so far

I cannot quite believe that it is now 2 years since I set up this website, and I thought that it might be revealing to provide an entirely unscientific snapshot of what has most bothered readers since its launch [nb, please note this data is entirely anonymised by WordPress so I do not know precisely who has been reading what].

Discounting those who have looked at the welcome and home pages, all the most popular pages by some margin have related in some way to Cheshire West and resources dedicated thereto, and Mr Justice Mostyn clearly has a significant fan club judging by the several thousand hits on my comment on the Rochdale case (whether or not visitors to that page might have included Mr Justice Mostyn himself I cannot say).   A significant number of those who have read pages on the site have also been troubled by issues of litigation capacity and testamentary capacity, and most of you who have clicked out of the site have gone in some way to the mental capacity resources page that my Chambers maintains (thank you, 39 Essex Chambers, for this public service!).

Looking ahead, I very much hope that if and when I come to write a similar post for the website’s 5th birthday, the proportion of hits on pages related to deprivation of liberty will be enormously smaller, and the proportion of hits on pages related to the CRPD very much greater.

Who knows, by then we may even have pages dedicated to an improved Mental Capacity Act.   As to which, I can certainly say that my life at present is almost entirely – happily – dominated by working with the excellent team at the Law Commission on their Mental Capacity and Deprivation of Liberty project (as to which, an interim report should be published in the spring of this year outlining where matters now stand).  Thinking about what the law might be as opposed to either arguing about or explaining what it currently is a fascinating process. But rest assured, I will continue to seek to argue where I must and explain when I can during the rest of 2016; as to which, look out, inter alia, for the Court of Protection Practice 2016 coming soon, a second edition of the Court of Protection Handbook later in the year, along with articles on such topics as the comparative approaches in the MCA 2005 and the Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act and the role of litigation friends.

Thank you very much for your support over the past couple of years, and keep up the good work.

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