Equal Treatment Bench Book – new edition
A new (2024) edition of the Equal Treatment Bench Book (ETBB) has been published. As it notes in the preface: Treating people fairly requires awareness and understanding of their different...
View ArticleSeptember 2024 Mental Capacity Report now out – and walkthrough
The September 2024 Mental Capacity Report is now out. It is something of a doorstop thanks to our (in this context mistaken) decision to take August off. Highlights this month include: (1) In the...
View ArticleLearning disability, access to justice, and the role of the law (and lawyers)...
In this ‘in conversation’ with Professor Rosie Harding, we talk about the Co-Producing Accessible Legal Information (COALITION) Project, which has recently published its concluding report (and...
View ArticleThe police and the Mental Capacity Act 2005 – in conversation with Michael Brown
In this ‘in conversation with’, I talk to the very recently retired police officer, Michael Brown – the Mental Health Cop, about the police, the MCA 2005, the red herring of ‘capacity to commit...
View ArticleSex, ageing, death and capacity – new books
[Shameless plug warning]. Three new books have landed on my desk in short order, in which chapters I have written / co-written appear, and which may be of interest. In alphabetical order, with...
View ArticleWhen the right course is do nothing, and how to recognise that this is the...
In Re PG [2024] EWCOP 49 (T3), Cobb J had to determine the capacity and best interests of a woman as regards investigation and treatment of potentially serious conditions including different forms of...
View ArticleOutsourcing and the Human Rights Act 1998 – the consequences
Without straying into politics, Sammut v Next Steps Mental Healthcare Ltd [2024] EWHC 2265 (KB) is a case which demonstrates the consequences of the fact that much state-funded care – including...
View ArticleConflict (and conflict avoidance) in the ICU – in conversation with Dr...
In this ‘in conversation with’, I talk to Dr Harleen Kaur Johal, a doctor and PhD candidate, about her research as part of the BABEL project into conflict in the ICU. We discuss her interviews with...
View ArticleThe Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Right seeks to balance the...
The decision of the European Court of Human Rights in Pindo Mulla v Spain [2024] ECHR 753 is a very significant case about the interplay between Articles 2 and 8 ECHR in the context of the refusal of...
View ArticleThe Ombudsman, DoLS and triaging – asking the impossible?
Old-fashioned novels sometimes have elaborate subtitles. If a novel was being written about the decision of the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman in the complaint against Stockport...
View ArticleAMHPs, MHA admission and changing cultures – in conversation with Colleen...
In this ‘in conversation’ with Colleen Simon and John Mitchell, we talk about a recently published discussion paper about the ways in which Approved Mental Health Professionals (‘AMHPs’) undertake...
View ArticleAssisted dying – update, resources and event
It was announced on 3 October that Kate Leadbetter MP will be putting forward a Private Member’s Bill in the House of Commons to legalise assisted dying for terminally adults in England & Wales....
View ArticleDisabled children’s social care law in England – the Law Commission consults
The law on disabled children’s social care in England is currently governed by a patchwork of legislation, some of which dates back more than five decades. This has contributed to variation in the...
View Article2023-24 MCA birthday case review
To mark the 17th birthday of the MCA 2005 coming into force on 1 October 2007, I have recorded a shortish video with the 10 key cases concerning the MCA decided over the past 12 months. The slides are...
View ArticleBook review: Laura Mannering, A Practical Guide to Privacy, Transparency,...
Book review: Laura Mannering, A Practical Guide to Privacy, Transparency, Reporting Restrictions and Closed Hearings in the Court of Protection (Law Brief Publishing, 2024, 89 pages, £49.99) That this...
View ArticleTwo lives of a Mental Capacity Act – in conversation with Hillary Chua
In this ‘in conversation’ with, I talk to Hillary Chua of the National University of Singapore about a recent article in the Medical Law Review that she has co-authored with Camillia Kong and Michael...
View ArticleDisabled Children’s Social Care: Law Commission consultation paper walkthrough
The Law Commission published its consultation paper on disabled children’s social care on 8 October. I am a consultant to the project. In addition to the various other ways in which to get yourself up...
View ArticleAssisted dying / suicide – a toolkit for Parliamentarians
Thinking about assisted dying / assisted suicide (the language, as the Health and Social Care Select Committee of the Westminster Parliament noted in its recent report, is itself problematic) is...
View ArticlePalliative care, choices and honesty – in conversation with Dr Victoria Bradley
In this ‘in conversation’ with, I talk to Dr Victoria Bradley, Clinical Lead for and Consultant in Palliative Medicine, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, about choices in palliative...
View ArticleAnticipatory declarations and supporting P in her wish to protect herself
Leicestershire County Council v P & Anor [2024] EWCOP 53 (T3) is both an interesting and an important decision. It is interesting because it is the first reported English[1] case considering...
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