The need for an urgent hearing was because the house that P had been living in had been sold at auction and completion of the sale was due the following week (on 18th November). The house needed to be cleared of furniture and effects before then. Additionally, P needed to vacate the property and live elsewhere.
Tag Archives: Best Interests
The most complex Covid patient in the world: Planning for a re-hearing after a successful appeal
All this detailed planning – what needs to be provided by what deadline and by whom – is part of preparing for a full hearing, especially where (as here) matters are contested. Hearings like these feel relatively pedestrian: they lack the intrinsic interest we all feel about the ethically weighty decisions made in final hearings. But they are the essential scaffolding upon which those final hearings depend.
Capacity to engage in sex: Nine responses to the Supreme Court Judgment in Re. JB
The Supreme Court considered the issue of whether to have capacity to decide to have sexual relations with another person, a person needs to understand that the other person must have the capacity to consent to the sexual activity, and must in fact consent before and throughout the sexual activity.
Fact-finding, ‘magnetic importance’, and the consternation of colleagues: A final hearing adjourned
At the heart of this hearing is the question of whether P can live with her mother, who loves her and wants to care for her. Attempts to elicit P’s wishes and feelings have been unsuccessful, but the social worker has said that “having observed the loving and affectionate relationship that [P] has with her family and that she has been cared for by them throughout her life, it is understood that [P] would wish to continue to stay with her family and be cared for by them”.
A life-sustaining treatment decision from Hayden J in the Court of Appeal
Having witnessed a loving and dedicated family rally to their mother/sister’s cause at the previous hearings, I was not surprised to learn that they had brought an appeal against Hayden J’s order that it will not be in AH’s best interests, and not lawful, for ventilatory treatment to continue after 31st October 2021.
“Burdensome and futile” treatment and dignity compromised: Poor practice at a leading UK hospital
The RHN clearly failed to provide high-quality, patient centred care – and part of this Court of Protection judgment is dedicated to exploring why this happened and what lessons might be learned.
C-section and anaesthesia: An unexpected unified decision
There had been two major changes in the situation since the first hearing a week ago. Firstly, SM’s baby was now in the breech position. Secondly, as expressed by Mr Justice Holman, the Trust was now “not necessarily resistant to doing some form of spinal anaesthesia on the day if that is her express preference and she is cooperative”.
Does P have capacity to consent to sale of a house and move to residential care?
By Celia Kitzinger, 11th November 2021 Editorial update: Some of the ‘facts’ conveyed in this hearing turned out later not to be true. Check out the subsequent hearing in this case which corrects some of the ‘facts’ reported here: “Approving a conveyancing plan to move P to residential care“ “I have concerns over a wholeContinue reading “Does P have capacity to consent to sale of a house and move to residential care?”
Navigating a family feud on P’s death-bed
By Celia Kitzinger, 9th November 2021 She’s in her eighties, with significant cognitive decline, and delirium secondary to numerous infections and “in all likelihood in the last weeks of her life,” said the judge. She lacks capacity to make her own decisions about who she has contact with. One of her daughters, Ann[1], and Ann’s daughter (P’sContinue reading “Navigating a family feud on P’s death-bed”
Reflections on Disability and Reproductive Justice in a court hearing
P’s awake while giving birth, adding layers of complexity to what could be considered P’s best interests because she raised the importance to her of bonding and the symbiotic relationship between mother and baby. To her, being awake and with her partner are fundamental to establishing that relationship. Without her ability to participate, how could the court have recognised this?
Promoting Open Justice in the Court of Protection 