Mental Capacity Cases
Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council v LS & Anor
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...
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Mental capacity - Assessing capacity
W v P
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...
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Practice and procedure - Other
Re EM (Deprivation of Liberty, Care Planning & Costs)
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...
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Article 5 ECHR - Deprivation of liberty
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Mental Health Act 1983 - Interface with MCA
MacPherson v Sunderland City Council
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...
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Mental capacity - Litigation
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Other
Re P (Property & Affairs Deputyship: Jurisdiction)
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...
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Other
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Mental Health Act 1983 - Interface with MCA
Oldham MBC v KZ (Fluctuating Capacity: Anticipatory Declaration)
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...
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Mental capacity - Litigation
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Other
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Mental Health Act 1983 - Interface with MCA
ZX (Capacity to engage in sexual relations)
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...
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Mental capacity - Sexual relations
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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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Mental capacity - Sexual relations
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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 ...
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Mental Health Act 1983 - Interface with MCA