Mental Capacity Report - June 2024

Welcome to the June 2024 Mental Capacity Report. Highlights this month include:

1. In the Health, Welfare and Deprivation of Liberty Report: when no option is a good one, snapshots from the frontline, and are we listening closely enough to the person in the context of deprivation of liberty;
2. In the Property and Affairs Report: the Powers of Attorney Act 2023 on election hold, contesting costs in probate cases and guidance on viewing LPAs online;
3. In the Practice and Procedure Report: post-death costs, what does it mean to be an expert in the person, and procedure in brain stem death cases;
4. In the Mental Health Matters Report: the MHA 1983 under strain in police cells and the hospital setting;
5. In the Wider Context Report: the inherent jurisdiction – a case, guidance, and a challenge from Ireland; the older child and medical treatment decisions – mental capacity or competence, and Capacity and contempt proceedings – what is the test?
6. In the Scotland Report: guardianship under examination before the Sheriff Appeal Court and Scottish Government’s Mental Health and Capacity Reform Programme.

There are two plugs this month: 

(1)    For a free digital trial of the newly relaunched Court of Protection Law Reports (now published by Butterworths.  For a walkthrough of one of the reports, see here.
(2)    For Lucy Series’ blog post about mental capacity and voting.

You can find our past issues, our case summaries, and more on our dedicated sub-site here, where you can also sign up to the Mental Capacity Report.

Click below to download the Screen-friendly version of the Report or the Print-friendly version of the Report.

Watch Alex's walkthrough of the Report.

39 Essex Chambers June 2024 Mental Capacity Report walkthrough from Ruck Keene on Vimeo.