Cases

Summary The flipside of the intense focus on the wishes, feelings, beliefs and values of the person required by s.4 MCA 2005, as clarified by the Supreme Court in Aintree v James, is that there may be situations in which, objectively, a person’s medical situation might appear hopeless, but nonetheless continued treatment is in their best interests.  Such a case is that of The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust v YD & Ors (Refusal of Withdrawal of Treatment) [2025] EWCOP 31.[1]  On the face of it, YD, who had been in a prolonged disorder of consciousness since October 2024 and had no [...]

SummaryThis case is challenging at a number of levels, over and above the human tragedy at the centre of it.  Procedurally, it highlights the pitfalls of identifying the point at which a decision made by the Court of Protection needs to be revisited because it is harming, rather than helping. Substantively, it highlights the challenges for the Court of Protection of seeking to respect autonomy in the context of anorexia. Clinically, it highlights deep and insufficiently understood splits amongst clinicians about how to respond to anorexia, especially in the context of resource limitations which appear (all too often) to cut off [...]

SummaryFor years, lawyers and clinicians have thrown around the term ‘Gillick competence’ as if it were a universal test to apply to analyse the decision-making abilities of children.  More recently, they have largely limited themselves to throwing the term around in relation to the decision-making abilities of children under 16, looking instead (in England & Wales) to the Mental Capacity Act 2005 for those aged 16 and over.Both of these are incorrect.The MCA 2005 only applies to those aged 16 and over where statute provides that it does (hence why the Law Commission in its disabled children’s social care consultation paper [...]

SummaryThis application for an authorisation of a child’s deprivation of liberty related to ‘Jake,’ who was 16 years old at the time of the application. The background was set out by Mr Recorder Jack at paragraph 1 thus:On 24th July 2024 he was convicted of three serious sexual offences and was subsequently sentenced to two and half years' custody. He was released on licence on 30th July 2025. He will remain on licence until 29th October 2026.In July 2025, the local authority applied to authorise Jake’s deprivation of liberty at a placement where he has continuous 1:1 supervision, alarms on his bedroom and [...]

SummaryRe G (A Child) [2025] EWHC 1974 (Fam) is (yet another) case in which the High Court has refused to make a deprivation of liberty order in respect of a (17 year old) child.  Henke J crisply outlined the background thus:3. The young person at the heart of this judgment will be referred to herein as G. He was born in March 2008. In October 2023, G expressed himself to be suicidal. He left his mother's care and went to live with his father. Whilst living with his father, G again expressed suicidal ideation and on occasion absconded. G has been accommodated [...]

SummaryRe G (A Child) [2025] EWHC 1974 (Fam) is (yet another) case in which the High Court has refused to make a deprivation of liberty order in respect of a (17 year old) child.  Henke J crisply outlined the background thus:3. The young person at the heart of this judgment will be referred to herein as G. He was born in March 2008. In October 2023, G expressed himself to be suicidal. He left his mother's care and went to live with his father. Whilst living with his father, G again expressed suicidal ideation and on occasion absconded. G has been accommodated [...]

SummaryThe Court of Protection on occasion has to deal with those who are determined to stymie its jurisdiction.  In Kirk v Devon County Council [2017] EWCA Civ 34, Sir James Munby, through gritted teeth, accepted that the end of the line had been reached in relation to a P who had been abducted to Portugal.  In Re AB & Ors [2025] EWCOP 27 (T3), McKendrick J refused to accept that the end of the line had yet been reached in relation to a P abducted to Jamaica.  His reasons for giving a detailed judgment setting out the background and the concerns relating to [...]

SummaryRe AB (Disclosure of Position Statements) [2025] EWCOP 25 (T3) concerns a question of increasing importance given (in particular) the sterling work of the Open Justice Court of Protection Project: namely when and how can position statements be provided to observers? [1]  Poole J has rolled up his sleeves, and given the following answer:36. There is presently no guidance on the provision of position statements to observers of Court of Protection hearings. I am told that practice varies and there is some confusion amongst parties, representatives, and observers as to the correct procedure and whether copies of position statements may be [...]

SummaryThis is a judgment about case management in a very difficult case involving a 17 year old with profoundly disordered eating.  As the child, AB’s mother put it:She is beautiful (inside and out), she is highly intelligent and extremely articulate, with her whole future ahead of her. She is brilliant at art, studies hard at school, and dreams of one day being a paediatric nurse. She is a 17 year old CHILD currently fighting the most horrendous battle of her life that no child should have to face.It is of note for two reasons.  The first is the intense concern [...]

SummaryThe problem of the retrospective consideration of capacity troubled Costs Judge Whalan in Furley Page LLP v KFL [2025] EWHC 1703 (SCCO).  The question arose in relation to the detailed assessment of costs due by the defendant (a distinguished – unnamed – barrister who is now living with dementia) to those solicitors acting for him in complex proceedings ultimately leading to the appointment of a property and affairs deputy and the execution of a statutory will (see for a summary: T & Anor v L & Ors (Inherent Jurisdiction: Costs) [2021] EWHC 2147 (Fam).   As a preliminary point on the detailed [...]