Cases

Summary The obligations on the certificate provider in a case from December 2023 which arrived on Bailii too late for the February 2024 Mental Capacity Report, Lieven J has confirmed something which might have been thought obvious: namely that a cer... Read more  

Summary Paul Bowen KC, sitting as a Tier 3 Judge, has helpfully restated the interaction between the MCA and the ECHR in the medical treatment context. The case concerned dental treatment in relation to a 36 year old man with profound cognitive impa... Read more  

In The Health Service Executive of Ireland v A Hospital Provider [2023] EWCOP 55, the Vice-President, Theis J, rejected the proposition that there might be cases involving deprivation of liberty under cover of a foreign order put forward for recognit... Read more  

Summary  A 42-year-old man was found unresponsive, brought to A&E with multiple injuries, and had a seizure necessitating intensive care. There had been prior concerns that he was not taking his antipsychotic medication for paranoid schizop... Read more  

Summary This matter related to GH, who was 52 and had a diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder. The substantive application sought orders that GH should undergo breast cancer surgery which were granted. However, the case is of greater interest for it... Read more  

Summary In the first reported Court of Protection decision by the newly-appointed Ms Justice Henke, she considered the sad case of DL, a woman in her 30s who was detained in a psychiatric intensive care unit under s.3 Mental Health Act 1983. As Henk... Read more  

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... Read more  

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... Read more  

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 profo... Read more  

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 short... Read more  

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 vie... Read more  

Summary In this rather unusual application, MacDonald J considered the emotive subject of when parents – or indeed the courts – can intervene in the personal lives of adolescents: in this case, the life of a 17 year old, non-binary individual, EE, i... Read more