Senior Judge Hilder (and the OS) seemed very familiar with how difficult it can be to ensure that organisations follow through on their responsibility and how easily a timetable can slip.
Tag Archives: Human Rights
A remarkable turnaround: Updating the “vile judgment” case
By October 2025, the local authority had concluded that 24-hour live-in care was no longer necessary and sought court approval to replace it with four daily care visits supported by assistive technology. The court agreed, bringing an end to all restrictions on contact between Caroline and her mother.
Fit to discharge or fit to section?
The family members are adamant that the new care providers are “the worst agency they’ve been involved with” and report receiving somewhere between 50 and 100 distress calls each day from P in which she begs them to prevent her having to go home with those carers. Their view is that if P returns home with this care provider, then her quality of life at home would be no better than her remaining in hospital.
What happens to restricted patients after AGNI? SJ Hilder considers the consequences
At first sight, this appeared to be a straightforward example of the post-AGNI legal framework in practice. The applicant local authority invited the court to discharge the COPDOL order. But there was a complication. The P in this case is a “restricted patient”, living in the community under “conditional discharge”.
Iatrogenic harm and the Court of Protection
Court proceedings can cause unintended harm to the person at the centre of the case (“P”) as well as to P’s family, and to P’s wider support network….
Anorexia, declaratory protection and the Mental Health Act: Ventilating a jurisdictional question following Townsend
Given the likelihood of an upcoming Supreme Court hearing, it may be that Townsend provides a very slender thread on which to base the Trust’s argument – or indeed, on which to delay determination of P’s best interests by first detouring down what might turn out to be a jurisdictional cul-de-sac over the next six weeks.
Fit for discharge and still in hospital five months later due to delay with eating and drinking plan – updated after 12th May 2026 hearing
There’ s a deceptively simple solution to enable P to leave hospital – the development of an eating and drinking plan – but a complex web of responsibilities for making that happen, involving multiple public bodies, multiple teams, and multiple people
“Open Justice is not open sesame” Court of Appeal told in court document disclosure case
According to the appellant, an “urban myth” had developed about the application of the ‘open justice’ principle to Court of Protection hearings. Flowing from that urban myth, and exemplified by this case, was the proposition that non-parties have rights to access hearings (and materials relevant to hearings) before the Court of Protection, exercisable upon request, and for their benefit (Written submissions of Alex Ruck Keene KC (Hon))
Court of Appeal to decide whether open justice applies to the Court of Protection: Briefing for CA-2025-001953 Re Gardner (Deceased)
In this ‘advance briefing’, I will set out the relevant background and a short summary of the arguments of the appellant and the intervenors. I hope this will assist observers to follow the hearing – either in real-time (in person in the Royal Courts of Justice or via the live-stream) or subsequently via the recording likely to be available after the hearing on the court’s YouTube channel.
Permission to appeal refused: A procedural dead end
By Elissa Novak (with an introduction by Celia Kitzinger), 22nd February 2026 This is effectively the third tranche of litigation in the long-running case concerning Luba Macpherson and her daughter, “FP”. First came the welfare proceedings for FP which were concluded in 2023[1]. Then came committal proceedings which concluded in 2025 with Luba serving aContinue reading “Permission to appeal refused: A procedural dead end”
Promoting Open Justice in the Court of Protection 