Cases
R & Anor v A & Anor
SummaryThis is a very sad case involving surrogacy. It was an application for a parental order by Mr and Mrs R, with respect to a 6 month old boy – in other words an order providing for the boy to be treated as their child. The surrogate mother, Ms A...
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Family (public law)
R (Ibrahim) v Nursing and Midwifery Council
SummaryR (Ibrahim) v Nursing and Midwifery Council [2024] EWHC 2991 (Admin) is a case which shows how the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards are still not well understood. It concerned an appeal by a Registered Mental Health Nurse against the dec...
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Article 5 ECHR - DOLS authorisations
Aberdeenshire Council v SF (No 4) (Residence)
SummaryThis is the most recent in a long-running series of decisions concerning SF, a Scottish woman in her 40s with moderate intellectual disability, autism spectrum disorder, associated periods of severe anxiety, and a diagnosis of difficult to tre...
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Best interests - Residence
Re SB
SummaryAt the heart of this case was the ongoing crisis in supporting children with complex needs. Those issues are discussed in detail in chapter 14 of the Law Commission’s consultation paper on disabled children’s social care needs, and h...
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Mental capacity - Sexual relations
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Mental capacity - Medical treatment
Clipea & Grosu v Moldova
SummaryThis case concerned two individuals with intellectual disabilities who were periodically undergoing treatment at a psychiatric hospital, on what was said to be a voluntary basis. Their application concerned: (1) whether the conditions to ...
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Mental Health Act 1983 - Interface with MCA
NHS North Central London Integrated Care Board v Royal Hospital for Neuro-Disability & Anor
SummaryThis is the most recent in a sequence of decisions given by the Vice-President, Theis J, regarding best interests decision-making in the context of CANH. It concerned, again, delay in best interests decisions being made arising out of a lack o...
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Best interests - Medical treatment
ET v Moldova
SummaryThis decision is one with ramifications extending significantly beyond Moldova. It concerned the inability of the applicant, who had been declared totally incapacitated owing to her mental illness, to bring a court action aimed at restoring he...
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Mental Health Act 1983 - Interface with MCA
Health Service Executive of Ireland v SM
SummaryThis case is the sequel to a decision in 2020 concerning SM, an Irish citizen with a number of complex mental health needs. The application was for recognition and enforcement of a further order of the Irish High Court, made by the Presid...
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Recognition and enforcement
Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust v CC & Ors
SummaryThis case concerned a 21 year old woman, CC. Her clinicians were concerned as to her capacity to make decisions about medical treatment “due to her overwhelming fear and distress, generated by her anorexia nervosa and compounded by her autism ...
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Mental capacity - Sexual relations
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Mental capacity - Medical treatment
NHS NW London ICB v AB & Ors
SummaryFollowing a “wholescale systemic review of their practices and procedures” (paragraph 9) prompted by Hayden J’s scathing criticisms in North West London Clinical Commissioning Group v GU [2021] EWCOP 59, a further application for the dete...
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Best interests - Medical treatment
Re BJB
SummaryThis is the first reported judgment from Senior Judge Hilder relating to so-called Peters undertakings; in this case, a reverse indemnity undertaking, whereby BJB was obliged to remit 98% of public funding received to the tortfeasor.BJB s...
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Deputies - Financial and property affairs
JC v Cornwall Council and ors
SummaryThis is another judgment, determined in the autumn of 2024, but only appearing on Bailii more recently, on the question of capacity to engage in sexual relations. JC was a 58 year old with a mild learning disability, who had been found (...
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Mental capacity - Sexual relations
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Mental Health Act 1983 - Interface with MCA