By Febienne Green (with Celia Kitzinger), 8th August 2023 On Wednesday, 5th July 2023, I watched a hearing (COP 13627234) before Mrs Justice Theis, Vice President of the Court of Protection, sitting at the Royal Courts of Justice via MS Teams. The case was a s.21A challenge to a standard authorisation depriving Mr N of hisContinue reading “A s.21A challenge for a ‘restricted’ patient: A “shocking” delay”
Tag Archives: Human Rights
Adjournment and interim judgment – Hayden J’s fact-finding hearing
By Celia Kitzinger, 4 August 2023 Editorial note: For background information about this case click on the titles of these two blog posts: (1) : “Fact-finding hearing: Little short of outright war” (which has links to previous judgments) and (2) “A judicial embargo and our decision to postpone“. Note that we will now delay publication of our multi-authored blogs aboutContinue reading “Adjournment and interim judgment – Hayden J’s fact-finding hearing”
Coma and treatment withdrawal: An unusual case
By Rhiannon Snaith, 2nd August 2023 Note: The judgment has been published here: Re IN (Withdrawal of CANH) [2023] EWCOP 32 This case (COP 14094683, before Mr Justice Poole) was heard in the Royal Courts of Justice on Friday 21 July 2023. The hearing was listed as a ‘hybrid’ hearing which meant that people couldContinue reading “Coma and treatment withdrawal: An unusual case”
Restricting family contact, and family ‘abuse’ of staff: An adversarial Court of Protection hearing
By Claire Martin, 11th July 2023 One of the most draconian decisions the Court of Protection can make is to restrict contact between people who love each other and want to be together. That was the issue in this hearing. The Health Board was seeking urgent court authorisation for an extension to an order restricting contactContinue reading “Restricting family contact, and family ‘abuse’ of staff: An adversarial Court of Protection hearing”
‘What God has put together, let no man put asunder’: A s.21A challenge and the limits of Power of Attorney
By Celia Kitzinger, 3rd July 2023 The words “What God has put together, let no man put asunder” are from the Bible (Matthew 19:6). It means that marriage is a holy thing and humans should not break a marriage apart. The deeply religious man who uttered these words in court was powerfully expressing his dismayContinue reading “‘What God has put together, let no man put asunder’: A s.21A challenge and the limits of Power of Attorney”
An ‘impasse’ on face-to-face contact between mother and daughter
By Celia Kitzinger, 25 June 2023 This is a tragic and seemingly intractable case. A mother and daughter love each other and want to be together. The daughter, FP, is deprived of her liberty in a residential nursing home. The placement is some distance away from where her mother lives with her husband (FP’s stepfather) –Continue reading “An ‘impasse’ on face-to-face contact between mother and daughter”
On not authorising restraint for bowel surgery
Physically restraining someone against their will to have general anaesthesia for a serious operation is something that most of us instinctively recoil from, and for good reason – namely, that it is the repression of an individual liberty and it is disrespectful to individual autonomy.
The most complex of best interests: Organ donation, learning disability, and the options on the table
Ruby Reed-Berendt and Bonnie Venter, 12 May 2023 To our knowledge, the Court of Protection has only once before grappled with the issue of capacity and organ donation in the context of learning disability: when it considered the case of William Verden last year. You can read the judgment in that earlier judgment here: Manchester UniversityContinue reading “The most complex of best interests: Organ donation, learning disability, and the options on the table”
After the kidney transplant: The view from “Team William”
If I were presented with this situation again, I would most definitely do it all again in a heartbeat. William’s situation demonstrated to me that although there are risks to being placed in intensive care, it was absolutely the right decision for William.
Disadvantaged litigants in person and a long search for a placement
By Celia Kitzinger, 14th April 2023 This very short hearing (just half an hour) interested me for two reasons. First, it tells yet another story indicative of the horrendous pressures on social care in England, with suitable placements hard to come by. Second, it raised for me some worries about the way the judge treated the parents,Continue reading “Disadvantaged litigants in person and a long search for a placement”
Promoting Open Justice in the Court of Protection 