By Daniel Clark, 19th October 2025 Note: On 20-22 October 2025, the UK Supreme Court will be asked to re-visit the question of how to understand a deprivation of liberty. This is the fifth in our series of blogs about the case. The others are:Reconsidering Cheshire West in the Supreme Court: Is a gilded cage still a cage? byContinue reading "Cheshire West returns to the Supreme Court: The position of the parties"| Promoting Open Justice in the Court of Protection
On Monday 20th to Wednesday 22nd October, the UK Supreme Court is gearing up to hear a case that could redraw the map of human rights protections for people deprived of their liberty, and I, for one, am terrified.| Promoting Open Justice in the Court of Protection
This question strikes at the heart of the “subjective element” of deprivation of liberty. And it’s why charities like Mind, Mencap, and the National Autistic Society are sounding the alarm. As someone who has worked as a DoLS lead, Best Interests Assessor, and social worker, and now as a Practice Development Consultant at SCIE, I share those concerns.| Promoting Open Justice in the Court of Protection
It was fascinating to to be able to ‘eavesdrop’ on the practical and legal dilemmas created by this situation as it unfolded in real time. ... to appreciate how decisions emerge in response to changing events on the ground, and how competing arguments are advanced (often fervently) by people committed to P’s best interests but with different perspectives on how P’s best interests should be served| Promoting Open Justice in the Court of Protection
The Court of Appeal was (again) displaying to others who might be tempted to flout court orders that it would not hesitate to exact punishment.| Promoting Open Justice in the Court of Protection
She went to Somalia to be with her grandmother, and she returned to the UK in July 2025. When she arrived at hospital the following month, having had a fall, clinicians realised she was eight months pregnant.| Promoting Open Justice in the Court of Protection
Court of Protection judges are very experienced in dealing with fraught situations and family dispute. The stakes are high when family members disagree about the care or finances of a relative who lacks capacity to make their own decisions, and there are likely to be different perspectives on who is being most loving, or reasonable or responsible, who started what, or who is to blame for the current situation.| Promoting Open Justice in the Court of Protection
There are probably constitutional and legal questions about this route to reviewing an earlier Supreme Court decision, but that’s not what interests me today. want to write about valid consent, because it’s a topic I’ve been thinking and writing about a lot since Cheshire West| Promoting Open Justice in the Court of Protection
Even when P says they’re happy with their residence, and that they do not want to leave, and welcome the fact that the doors are kept locked, this still amounts to a deprivation of liberty. I…| Promoting Open Justice in the Court of Protection
None of us would want our loved ones to be placed (like AB’s fiancee) in the position of having to defend the authenticity of our written documents after we’ve lost capacity. We want to prod…| Promoting Open Justice in the Court of Protection
SJ Hilder’s view was that it would be wrong for planned surgery to be delayed while legal framework issues were resolved. The judge ran this hearing with clinical precision, setting out clearly wh…| Promoting Open Justice in the Court of Protection
I’ve observed a lot of different judges in a lot of different hearings. If I were P, or a member of P’s family, DJ Clarke is a judge I’d be very happy to have hearing my case.| Promoting Open Justice in the Court of Protection
“Can we stress in your piece that social services need to listen to the families. That’s what I want to get out of this. They need to listen and understand that we have their best interests at hear…| Promoting Open Justice in the Court of Protection
That experience has helped me to understand, on a visceral level, how easily autonomy can be subsumed under the guise of safety, support, and risk management. I notice the gulf between how I descri…| Promoting Open Justice in the Court of Protection
By Daniel Clark, 27th August 2025 This case concerns a young man with a hypoxic brain injury arising from a cardiac arrest. He is a drug user and a victim of cuckooing, (which is when a person’s dw…| Promoting Open Justice in the Court of Protection
Honestly, we can’t begin to predict now what will happen. The Liberty Protection Safeguards are on hold, in the longest of the long grass. Will they ever happen or is that it now? If not the Liberty Protection Safeguards, might something else energe? Or will others in the future build on the work done so […]| Social Work, Cats and Rocket Science
