Mental Capacity Cases

As explored in this paper and this “in conversation with,” the potential for discrimination in the treatment of conditions requiring dialysis and/or organ donation is large where the person has impaired decision-making capacity.  This case shows the ... Read more  

Summary  This matter related to PN, a 34-year-old man who had diagnoses of a mild learning disability and autistic spectrum disorder. There was no dispute as to PN’s diagnoses or his lack of capacity to conduct proceedings, or to make decisions as t... Read more  

Summary  This very difficult case stands out for the careful attempt by the judge – John McKendrick KC (sitting as a Tier 3 judge) – to comply with (in CRPD language) the will and preferences of a woman with a mental disorder undergoing a profound c... Read more  

In the case of ST, Roberts J found that the 19 year old in question lacked capacity to decide upon her medical treatment because (we summarise) she could not believe her doctors when they told her that she was dying.   ST did, in fact, die shortly af... Read more  

Summary  The interface between the MHA 1983 and the MCA 2005 has recently been considered at the point of entry.  In ML v Priory Healthcare Ltd & SSJ  [2023] UKUT 237 (AAC), UTJ Church considered the question from the point of view of exit from ... Read more  

Summary In this rather unusual application, MacDonald J considered the emotive subject of when parents – or indeed the courts – can intervene in the personal lives of adolescents: in this case, the life of a 17 year old, non-binary individual, EE, i... Read more  

Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust v KT & Ors [2023] EWCOP 46 concerned a 53 year old man with end-stage kidney failure who had sustained brain damage during treatment and was now in a prolonged disorder of consciousness.  The treating T... Read more  

Summary This desperately sad case provides an example of how far the courts have come in terms of thinking about capacity since the early days of the MCA 2005, and poses some perhaps challenging questions about its future.  ST was 19, and had spent ... Read more  

Summary The issue facing the Upper Tribunal in this case  was crisply delineated by UTJ Church thus:  1. This appeal is about RB, a woman with a primary diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder and a secondary diagnosis of complex post-traumatic stres... Read more  

Summary The case name helpfully captures what this difficult case was about.  It concerned RK (identified in the body of the judgment as ‘R’), a 30 year old woman with Down's Syndrome, a moderate to severe learning disability (described in the docum... Read more  

Summary Hayden J has helpfully reminded us of the fact that a person with cognitive impairments may be operating within a very different reality to everyone else does not mean that it is a reality which can simply be ignored. The case concerned a ... Read more  

Summary Theis J has rolled up her sleeves and waded into the thickets of Schedule 1A, hearing the appeal against the decision of HHJ Burrows in Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust v JS & Anor [2023] EWCOP 12.  In brief terms, sh... Read more