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... Read more  
 
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... Read more  
 
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... Read more  
 
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... Read more  
 
Mental capacity - Sexual relations , 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 ... Read more  
 
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... Read more  
 
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... Read more  
 
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... Read more  
 
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 ... Read more  
 
Mental capacity - Sexual relations , 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... Read more  
 
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... Read more  
 
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 (... Read more  
 
Mental capacity - Sexual relations , Mental Health Act 1983 - Interface with MCA