Mental Capacity Cases

Summary This desperately sad case provides an example of how far the courts have come in terms of thinking about capacity since the early days of the MCA 2005, and poses some perhaps challenging questions about its future.  ST was 19, and had spent ... Read more  

Summary The issue facing the Upper Tribunal in this case  was crisply delineated by UTJ Church thus:  1. This appeal is about RB, a woman with a primary diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder and a secondary diagnosis of complex post-traumatic stres... Read more  

Summary The case name helpfully captures what this difficult case was about.  It concerned RK (identified in the body of the judgment as ‘R’), a 30 year old woman with Down's Syndrome, a moderate to severe learning disability (described in the docum... Read more  

Summary Hayden J has helpfully reminded us of the fact that a person with cognitive impairments may be operating within a very different reality to everyone else does not mean that it is a reality which can simply be ignored. The case concerned a ... Read more  

Summary Theis J has rolled up her sleeves and waded into the thickets of Schedule 1A, hearing the appeal against the decision of HHJ Burrows in Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust v JS & Anor [2023] EWCOP 12.  In brief terms, sh... Read more  

Summary This case concerned the health and welfare of a 60 year old man, Mr K, and in particular the relief necessary to protect him from his resistance to the treatment of his chronic bilateral venous leg ulcers.  He was subject to a standard autho... Read more  

Summary The Supreme Court has clarified one aspect of the perennially thorny question of responsibility for funding aftercare under s.117 MHA 1983.  In R (on the application of Worcestershire County Council) v Secretary of State for Health and Socia... Read more  

Summary  This case concerned an application by Kings College Hospital for permission to withdraw life sustaining treatment from a young man, X, who was 27 years old. The application was opposed by members of his family, with X’s father, Y, acting as... Read more  

Summary This decisions raises starkly the limits of autonomy in healthcare decision-making.   As a result of a rare genetic condition, X-linked hypophosphatemia, JJ was quadriplegic and without teeth. While his cognitive and communication skills we... Read more  

The decision of Poole J in Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust v IN & Ors [2023] EWCOP 32 is of wider relevance for two reasons.  The first related to observations made in the course of the substantive determination of the application.  The... Read more  

Summary The appellant, Dr Philip Esper, brought an appeal against by a decision of District Judge Beckley to name him in committal proceedings in the Court of Protection relating to his relative, AB.  The contempt and committal proceedings.  DJ Bec... Read more  

A Health and Social Care Trust v JU [2023] NIFam 12 provides an interesting take on the extent of positive obligations under Article 2 ECHR owed in the context of mental ill-health.  Importantly, and by contrast with the majority of the cases in whic... Read more