Court of Protection Case Summaries

Judge Denzil Lush is the Senior Judge of the Court of Protection.  Earlier this year the Court were kind enough to share with me some case summaries he had written on Court of Protection cases.  I asked if he would mind me sharing them more widely, as I think many legal and social care practitioners might find them interesting or useful.  He has very kindly agreed, and I've put them up through Google Documents here (if you have any problems downloading the document, drop me an email and I'll send it to you).  Some of the cases have been reported elsewhere, but some look as if they have not.  They range across all kinds of issues.  It's a really handy and well written resource, I'm very grateful to the Court for sharing it.  Adam Wagner at the UK Human Rights Blog has previously discussed the benefits of short judgment summaries, like those produced by the Supreme Court, for ensuring better legal reporting and awareness.  Judges in the under-resourced Court of Protection won't have time for this in most cases, but it's nice to see accessibly written summaries of important cases - particularly for people who don't have subscriptions to services like Westlaw or Lexis.

In other news, a new series of Court of Protection Law Reports is being set up.  39 Essex Street barristers, and Court of Protection Newsletter authors, Alex Ruck-Keene and Victoria Butler-Cole are on the Editorial Board. The first volume will be a 'catch-up' volume of important cases to date.  I just hope that they will continue to publish their much-read and appreciated Newsletter...  If you want to find back-issues of the Newsletter, Jonathan Wilson has put them up here at Mental Health Law Online.  He's also recently posted a book by Judge Eldergill on Mental Health Review Tribunals.  The book was written in 1997, he is reproducing it on the blog 'for historical and academic interest only.'

One of these days, I really must get around to putting up a resources page...  I noticed the Essex Autonomy Project have got one on case studies and one on web resources, that might be useful to anyone with an interest in philosophical issues relating to mental capacity.