Mental Capacity Cases

SummaryCobb J sketched the outlines of this complex case after an introduction reinforcing that “determination of an adult's capacity represents the crucial jurisdictional gateway to the exercise of the Court of Protection's powers to make orders, as... Read more  

SummaryThe person at the centre of this matter, ‘P,’ was an unnamed person who had previously been in the public eye, and significant wealth. P was now elderly, had severe dementia and was unable to communicate; he appears to have lost capacity to ma... Read more  

SummaryIn this case, HHJ Burrows helpfully busted some disturbingly frequent myths about DoLS.  The case concerned a young woman, personalised by the court with the name “Emma,” and for present purposes, the central passages of wider relevance a... Read more  

SummaryThis is the latest judgment in the long running Court of Protection proceedings about Ms MacPherson’s daughter. The matter came before the Court of Appeal on an appeal brought by Ms MacPherson against an order made by Poole J on 22 January 202... Read more  

SummaryIn Re P (Property & Affairs Deputyship: Jurisdiction) [2024] EWCOP 77 (T2), HHJ Burrows confirmed that the Court of Protection has the power to revoke a property and affairs deputyship (and, we would add also, a health and welfare deputysh... Read more  

SummaryThis case is a salutary tale in which a failure to provide a Deaf young man with a suitably equipped translator and/or assessor very nearly had the effect of writing off the abilities he had and seriously underestimating his capacity to make d... Read more  

SummaryThis was a leapfrog appeal from a Tier 2 Judge to the Court of Appeal; a relatively recent innovation.  It concerns the thorny issue of capacity to engage in sexual relations. At first instance HHJ Burrows had been confronted, t... Read more  

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  

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  

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  

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  

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