Cases

SummaryBy accident or design, Poole J appears to have found himself the Tier 3 transparency guru.  In Re Gardner (Deceased)(Duration of Transparency Order) [2025] EWCOP 34 (T3) he made a range of important observations about (and in passing rais... Read more  

SummaryIn the latest of a long-running series of cases, Lioubov Macpherson appealed a finding of contempt of court and sentence of imprisonment imposed as a result of that contempt in proceedings in the Court of Protection. Ms Macpherson is the mothe... Read more  

SummaryThe flipside of the intense focus on the wishes, feelings, beliefs and values of the person required by s.4 MCA 2005, as clarified by the Supreme Court in Aintree v James, is that there may be situations in which, objectively, a person’s ... Read more  

SummaryThis case decided in August 2025, but only published more recently, is another in a now near-continuous stream of cases grappling with complexities of applying the time-specific MCA 2005 in real life.The facts of the case are disturbing, both ... Read more  

SummaryThis case is challenging at a number of levels, over and above the human tragedy at the centre of it.  Procedurally, it highlights the pitfalls of identifying the point at which a decision made by the Court of Protection needs to be revis... Read more  

SummaryFor years, lawyers and clinicians have thrown around the term ‘Gillick competence’ as if it were a universal test to apply to analyse the decision-making abilities of children.  More recently, they have largely limited themselves to ... Read more  

SummaryRe G (A Child) [2025] EWHC 1974 (Fam) is (yet another) case in which the High Court has refused to make a deprivation of liberty order in respect of a (17 year old) child.  Henke J crisply outlined the background thus:3. The you... Read more  

SummaryRe G (A Child) [2025] EWHC 1974 (Fam) is (yet another) case in which the High Court has refused to make a deprivation of liberty order in respect of a (17 year old) child.  Henke J crisply outlined the background thus:3. The you... Read more  

SummaryThis application for an authorisation of a child’s deprivation of liberty related to ‘Jake,’ who was 16 years old at the time of the application. The background was set out by Mr Recorder Jack at paragraph 1 thus:On 24th July 2024 he was ... Read more  

SummaryThe Court of Protection on occasion has to deal with those who are determined to stymie its jurisdiction.  In Kirk v Devon County Council [2017] EWCA Civ 34, Sir James Munby, through gritted teeth, accepted that the end of the l... Read more  

SummaryRe AB (Disclosure of Position Statements) [2025] EWCOP 25 (T3) concerns a question of increasing importance given (in particular) the sterling work of the Open Justice Court of Protection Project: namely when and how can position statemen... Read more  

SummaryThis is a judgment about case management in a very difficult case involving a 17 year old with profoundly disordered eating.  As the child, AB’s mother put it:She is beautiful (inside and out), she is highly intelligent and extremely arti... Read more