By Celia Kitzinger, 29th June 2025 UPDATE – 29th September 2026 In an email time-stamped 10.51am today, I received the final order (dated yesterday, 28th September 2026) concerning my applica…

By Celia Kitzinger, 29th June 2025 UPDATE – 29th September 2026 In an email time-stamped 10.51am today, I received the final order (dated yesterday, 28th September 2026) concerning my applica…

The judge struggles to see how things could be worse. Allegations of abuse have been made against the carers, a safeguarding investigation is underway, the care agency has suspended six staff, and …

While the rest of the media – even the very worst parts – report on Daniel Thomas’ actions, BBC News fails to give its audience the facts.

The judge struggles to see how things could be worse. Allegations of abuse have been made against the carers, a safeguarding investigation is underway, the care agency has suspended six staff, and …

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.

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.

Following AGNI, has P (who has capacity to make decisions about care and residence) been deprived of her liberty for the purposes of making a human rights claim?

This hearing the opportunity to see how the Court is approaching the Supreme Court’s new, multifactorial test for deprivation of liberty following A Reference by the Attorney General for Northern I…

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 …

Following AGNI, has P (who has capacity to make decisions about care and residence) been deprived of her liberty for the purposes of making a human rights claim?

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 whic…

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 …

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 …

We have asked ourselves umpteen times over the years what DoLS have ever done for Joe’s mother. Hopefully now, post-AGNI, we can be left to care and advocate for Joe’s mother as we have always soug…

We have asked ourselves umpteen times over the years what DoLS have ever done for Joe’s mother. Hopefully now, post-AGNI, we can be left to care and advocate for Joe’s mother as we have always soug…

I hope that the practical plan put in place by DJ Clarke will enable the family and professionals to collaborate effectively and ensure that the Official Solicitor can obtain P’s wishes and feeling…

Polly has lived her life in the context of both the ‘ordinary usage’ of ‘liberty’ with its powerful social and political symbolism, and also the more peculiar legal definitions created by judicial …

Born in 1930, my Grandma was funny, cheeky, loving and firmly opinionated. She had been diagnosed with end-stage heart failure and vascular dementia, with fluctuating capacity and had been living h…

Polly has lived her life in the context of both the ‘ordinary usage’ of ‘liberty’ with its powerful social and political symbolism, and also the more peculiar legal definitions created by judicial …

One positive consequence of the AGNI judgment may be that it encourages professionals to refocus on their own responsibilities under the Mental Capacity Act. By reducing the number of cases that re…

Judges must minimise the ‘human impact’ of delay

HHJ Burrows determined that there is no deprivation of liberty for a young woman living under constant supervision and control in an annex to the family home. It was clear from his comments in cour…

HHJ Burrows determined that there is no deprivation of liberty for a young woman living under constant supervision and control in an annex to the family home. It was clear from his comments in cour…

Post by @OpenJusticeCoP.

In the end, despite having watched the hearing and heard the oral judgment, I don’t know why this judge made the decision she did about deprivation of liberty in this case – which pretty much defea…

For people who consider their loved ones well cared for, safe, and happy, the pre‑AGNI deprivation of liberty (DoL) processes were nonsensical and often intrusive. For that reason, the current judg…

Born in 1930, my Grandma was funny, cheeky, loving and firmly opinionated. She had been diagnosed with end-stage heart failure and vascular dementia, with fluctuating capacity and had been living h…

Post by @OpenJusticeCoP.

The key question in this case, which will be back in court on 2nd July 2026, is whether or not a man in his 40s, who had an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest about a month ago) is now “brain stem dead…

Born in 1930, my Grandma was funny, cheeky, loving and firmly opinionated. She had been diagnosed with end-stage heart failure and vascular dementia, with fluctuating capacity and had been living h…

By Sydney White, 24th June 2026 The grave facts of this case (COP 20033278, before Mrs Justice Theis on 23rd June 2026) are discussed in a previous blog (Anorexia, declaratory protection and the Me…

Post by @OpenJusticeCoP.

Post by @OpenJusticeCoP.

Counsel for the local authority said they would look to carry out the move on Thursday (two days later).  The judge explored with everyone how this would work in practice.  As always, Senior Judge …

Counsel for the local authority said they would look to carry out the move on Thursday (two days later).  The judge explored with everyone how this would work in practice.  As always, Senior Judge …

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….

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….

by Lorraine Currie, 11th June 2026 The image accompanying this blog has been provided by Lorraine’s daughter: the Magic Artist, Grace. To see her artwork (and for details about how to purchase it),…

Does the Minister of Health for Northern Ireland have the power to revise the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards Code of Practice (“the Code”) so that persons aged 16 and over who lack capacity to make...