Cases

Re AA (Withdrawal of Life-Sustaining Treatment: No Best Interests Decision)

Summary This case concerned a young man, AA, in a prolonged disorder of consciousness, identified by the treating team as being on the border of a vegetative state/minimally conscious state-minus. His parents did not agree either with his diagnosis ... Read more  
 
Best interests - Medical treatment

North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust & Anor v KAG & Ors

Summary  North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust & Anor v KAG & Ors [2024] EWCOP 38 (T3) is a case confirming the hard-edged nature of s.63 Mental Health Act 1983. It concerned a woman, KAG, who developed severe depression and in... Read more  
 
Mental capacity , Mental Health Act 1983 - Interface with MCA

NHS NW London ICB

Summary In this case, the Vice-President of the Court of Protection, Theis J, gave a careful and considered judgment about the continuation of clinically assisted nutrition and hydration (‘CANH’) of Z, a 70 year old man in a prolonged disorder of co... Read more  
 
Best interests - Medical treatment

A Local Authority v ZX

Summary  In this case, HHJ Burrows was confronted, to his considerable (and understandable) disquiet, with the need to determine whether an 18 year old man had capacity to make decisions about engaging in sexual relations with others.  His... Read more  
 
Mental capacity - Sexual relations

AB v CD

Summary This case concerned the best interests of a 27 year old man with a moderate learning disability, and visual and hearing impairments. At heart, it was a dispute between his mother, who had (in her own words) brought him in a “very alternative... Read more  
 
Deputies - Welfare matters

LB Hackney v A, B and C

Summary  John McKendrick KC has answered a question which, as he noted, had curiously not been answered since the MCA 2005 came into force – namely how far-reaching a set of injunctive measures it can grant to compel compliance with its orders.... Read more  
 
COP Jurisdiction and powers - Injunctions , Deputies - Welfare matters

CL v Swansea Bay University Health Board & Ors

Summary This judgment concerned an appeal to a decision of a circuit judge to discharge CL’s mother as her personal welfare deputy. The first instance decision of HHJ Porter-Bryant, dated 6 December 2023 (Swansea Bay University Health Board v P &... Read more  
 
Deputies - Welfare matters

P (Application to Withhold Closed Material: Concurrent Civil Proceedings)

Henke J has loyally followed the Closed Hearings and Closed Material Guidance ([2023] EWCOP 6) and produced a judgment “to enable disclosure at an appropriate point in the future and to enable the speedy and proportionate determination of any appeal ... Read more  
 
Practice and procedure - Other

Re ZZ (Capacity)

Summary This is an example of a relatively rare species of case, namely a successful appeal in relation to capacity.  At first instance, HHJ Burrows had found that ZZ had capacity to make decisions about residence, sexual relations and marriage... Read more  
 
Mental capacity - Assessing capacity

A Local Authority v A, B and the Hospital Trust

Summary This 5-year long case concerned a 25-year-old woman (‘A’) who was being covertly medicated in a care home whose mother sought her return to which all other parties were opposed. The previous judgments were reported at [2019] EWCOP 68; [2020]... Read more  
 
Best interests - Medical treatment , Mental capacity - Sexual relations

Irwin Mitchell Trust Corporation v PW & The Public Guardian

Summary The Court of Protection has given a clear statement that there is an actual conflict of interest when a Trust Corporation acting as property and affairs deputy appoints an Asset Management company with the same corporate owner. To avoid brea... Read more  
 
Mental capacity - Assessing capacity , Mental capacity - Sexual relations

Re AG (Welfare: Forced Marriage Protection Order)

In Re AG (Welfare: Forced Marriage Protection Order) [2024] EWCOP 18,  Theis J considered the position of a 24 year old woman with a mild learning disability. She had undergone a marriage ceremony in 2019 in circumstances which were unclear, The... Read more  
 
Care , Mental capacity - Assessing capacity