The Supreme Court has for the first time looked in detail at what it means to have or lack capacity… Read more
Capacity, consent and sexual relations – the Supreme Court decides
Category: Case comments
Fighting ever increasing odds against a draconian intervention – and when is a without notice hearing acceptable?
In Hull City Council v A & Ors [2021] EWCOP 60, Poole J was concerned with – in effect – what… Read more
Best interests decision-making, dignity and delay – obligations that cannot be avoided
In North West London Clinical Commissioning Group v GU [2021] EWCOP 59, Hayden J made a series of very powerful… Read more
Contingency planning and the Court of Protection – what, if any, threshold has to be crossed?
What (if any) threshold needs to be satisfied before the Court of Protection can exercise its (relatively) newly discovered ‘contingency’… Read more
Alice in Wonderland, or using the Human Rights Act to extend the coercive powers of the MHA into the community
When can a mental health patient lawfully remain in the community, rather than in hospital, but be deprived of their… Read more
The Sexual Offences Act, care workers, and paying for sex – the Court of Appeal pronounces
In The Secretary of State for Justice v A Local Authority & Ors [2021] EWCA Civ 1527, the Court of… Read more
Coercive control, capacity and the resolution of an ethical dilemma
How does coercive control impact upon decision-making? And what can – and should – the courts do when the victim… Read more
Advance decisions, Jehovah’s Witnesses and what does “doing something clearly inconsistent” with your ADRT mean?
The (surprisingly) small body of case-law relating to advance decisions to refuse treatments has been added to by a judgment… Read more
Gillick competence, puberty-blockers and the Court of Appeal
In Bell & Anor v The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust [2021] EWCA Civ 1363, the Court of Appeal… Read more
The Court of Protection and “the most complex Covid patient in the world”
The Court of Protection braced itself when COVID-19 hit for decisions to be placed before it about the withdrawal of… Read more