Cases
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
R (on the application of Worcestershire County Council) v Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Summary
The Supreme Court has clarified one aspect of the perennially thorny question of responsibility for funding aftercare under s.117 MHA 1983. In R (on the application of Worcestershire County Council) v Secretary of State for Health and Socia...
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Judicial Review
Kings College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust v X and Y
Summary
This case concerned an application by Kings College Hospital for permission to withdraw life sustaining treatment from a young man, X, who was 27 years old. The application was opposed by members of his family, with X’s father, Y, acting as...
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Best interests - Medical treatment
R (JJ) v Spectrum Community Healthcare CIC
Summary
This decisions raises starkly the limits of autonomy in healthcare decision-making.
As a result of a rare genetic condition, X-linked hypophosphatemia, JJ was quadriplegic and without teeth. While his cognitive and communication skills we...
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Best interests - Medical treatment
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Other proceedings - Civil
Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust v IN & Ors
The decision of Poole J in Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust v IN & Ors [2023] EWCOP 32 is of wider relevance for two reasons. The first related to observations made in the course of the substantive determination of the application. The...
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Judicial Review
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Practice and procedure - Other
Esper v NHS NW London ICB (Appeal: Anonymity in Committal Proceedings)
Summary
The appellant, Dr Philip Esper, brought an appeal against by a decision of District Judge Beckley to name him in committal proceedings in the Court of Protection relating to his relative, AB.
The contempt and committal proceedings. DJ Bec...
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Best interests - Medical treatment
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Mental capacity - Medical treatment
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Media - Court reporting
Major v Kirishana
A Health and Social Care Trust v JU [2023] NIFam 12 provides an interesting take on the extent of positive obligations under Article 2 ECHR owed in the context of mental ill-health. Importantly, and by contrast with the majority of the cases in whic...
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Family (public law)