Cases
Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust & Ors v Tooke & Ors
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 ...
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Best interests - Medical treatment
Re PN (Capacity: Sexual Relations and Disclosure)
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...
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Mental capacity - Sexual relations
Re H (An Adult; Termination)
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...
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Best interests - Medical treatment
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Practice and procedure - Other
University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust v Thirumalesh & Ors
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...
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Best interests - Medical treatment
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Practice and procedure - Other
ML v Priory Healthcare Ltd & SSJ
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 ...
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Mental Health Act 1983 - Interface with MCA
Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust & Ors v Tooke & Ors
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...
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Best interests - Medical treatment
An NHS Trust v ST & Anor
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 ...
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Best interests - Medical treatment
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Mental capacity - Medical treatment
SF v Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership
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...
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Mental Health Act 1983
Re RK (Capacity; Contact; Inherent Jurisdiction)
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...
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Interface with family proceedings
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Mental capacity
Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust v JM & Anor
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 ...
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Best interests - Medical treatment
Manchester University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust v JS & Others (Schedule 1A Mental Capacity Act 2005)
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...
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Mental Health Act 1983 - Interface with MCA
Barnet Enfield And Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust & Anor v Mr K & Ors
Summary
This case concerned the health and welfare of a 60 year old man, Mr K, and in particular the relief necessary to protect him from his resistance to the treatment of his chronic bilateral venous leg ulcers. He was subject to a standard autho...
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Best interests - Medical treatment