By Ruth Fletcher, 5th July 2021 The decision in ‘An Expectant Mother’ is unsettling on many levels, not least because it takes a harsh legal approach when a care-full one is needed. Instead of paying even more attention to the experience of the agoraphobic pregnant woman at the heart of this case, somehow the judgment has endedContinue reading “On care, coercion and childbirth in the Court of Protection”
Author Archives: openjusticecourtofprotection
Delays in finding an Acquired Brain Injury Placement: “A very significant degree of muddle”
By Gaby Parker, 29th June 2021 On 23rd June 2021 I observed a hearing (via MS Teams) before Mr Justice Hayden in the Court of Protection: COP 1354439T Re. PH. The case was about finding a suitable placement for P who remains in hospital although he is fit for discharge and has been for a long time. TheContinue reading “Delays in finding an Acquired Brain Injury Placement: “A very significant degree of muddle””
Keeping Mum in her own home: Deprivation of Liberty and Powers of Attorney for health and welfare
By Celia Kitzinger, 28th June 2021 Update: I’m informed that the next hearing for this case (previously listed for 2nd July 2021) has now been vacated, and is re-listed for 4th August 2021 at 3pm. We will post information about how to observe on our home page in due course. Most of the hearings weContinue reading “Keeping Mum in her own home: Deprivation of Liberty and Powers of Attorney for health and welfare”
“You can’t ask the High Court to turn a blind eye to illegal detention”
“You have to do better than that. You can’t ask the High Court to turn a blind eye to illegal detention. If this was an immigration case, I would be letting him out now. You can’t unlawfully detain people in the UK. You’ve got four days to sort this out. If the situation is that he should just go home – then just do it. I’m not going to order you to do it because I haven’t got the evidence.” (Mrs Justice Lieven)
Urgency, delayed decision-making and ethics in the Court of Protection
reatment for patients who are unable to decide for themselves. In England and Wales, they haven’t, or only extremely rarely, been called as expert witnesses. Yet ethics is obviously central to the work of the Court of Protection. And if this hearing is anything to go by, if judges or barristers were willing to call on them, it seems that there could be a place for an ethicist in the courtroom.
Resolving End-of-Life Treatment Conflicts: Comparing the COP in England to Analogous Mechanisms in Ontario, California, and Texas
By Thaddeus Mason Pope, 23rd June 2021 On Friday June 11 2021, I had the pleasure of watching The Honorable Mr. Justice Hayden deliver judgment in a Court of Protection case involving the withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment. I have been reading Court of Protection judgments for years and have even collected many on my website. But this was my firstContinue reading “Resolving End-of-Life Treatment Conflicts: Comparing the COP in England to Analogous Mechanisms in Ontario, California, and Texas”
Clinically-assisted nutrition and hydration: Decisions that cannot be ignored or delayed
By Jenny Kitzinger, 23rd June 2021 Hearings in the Court of Protection often bring crucial issues into sharp relief in a vivid, poignant and intellectually rigorous way. This was certainly so in the hearing I observed last week: Case No. 1375980T on 10 June 2021. It concerned GU, a 70-year-old man who sustained a severe anoxic brain injury in AprilContinue reading “Clinically-assisted nutrition and hydration: Decisions that cannot be ignored or delayed”
Hillingdon 10 Years on: Another Deprivation of Liberty
EW’s wish to end her days in Inverness may not weigh heavily in the best interests decision that will need to be made if the court decides that she lacks capacity to make her own decision about where to live. I worry that the groundwork for that is already being prepared. There was a weariness whenever Scotland was mentioned.
An urgent court-authorised Caesarean: Seeing behind a published judgment
I can see why planned care for someone in a highly distressed and deteriorating state is attractive on many fronts. However, like the Court, I really struggle with the sense that there seems to have been no attempt to engage openly and honestly with Miss K, at a time when she may have been better placed to consider her wishes and feelings in an inevitably harrowing situation.
Chaos in court and incompetent decision-making: Visual monitoring Part 2
By Claire Martin, 17th June 2021 This hearing, on 6th and 7th May 2021 before HHJ Howells at Wrexham County and Family Court (COP 13575520 Re: B) was the second hearing I’ve observed concerning “David” – a 39-year-old man with a severe learning disability, poorly controlled epilepsy and congenital cerebral palsy with right-sided hemiplegia. At the previous hearing, onContinue reading “Chaos in court and incompetent decision-making: Visual monitoring Part 2”
Promoting Open Justice in the Court of Protection 