@OpenJusticeCoP @JennyKitzinger @DMThornicroft 22/ I'm continuing this thread from my own account (tho' it was me who wrote the 21 tweets above from @OpenJusticeCoP) because watching today's hearing was a challenging experience + we don't all agree either about what happened or what we think/feel about it. @OpenJusticeCoP @JennyKitzinger @DMThornicroft 23/

A tough day for Laura + family

They believe Laura has capacity to make her own decisions about residence,care+ contact.

The family's expert, Dr Jessica Eccles @drbendybrain had submitted a report saying L had capacity for these decision.

In court, she changed her mind

A thread about a hearing in the COP today before MacDonald J 🧵

At 8.30am tomorrow (Friday 16 December 2022) a hospital will carry out a court-authorised caesarean on a 32 year-old woman, 34 weeks pregnant, with placental insufficience + growth retardation. She's a failed asylum seeker who was in prison for a violent offence immediately prior to her admission to hospital, and before that street-homeless. Urgent application from the Trust (Vikram Sachdeva KC). P represented by David Lawson via the OS.

It's all very beautiful but it's minus 6 here (at 2pm) and we've both got chest infections and the boiler packed up overnight so I'm gratefully sitting in a sleeping bag by the wood-burning stove and waiting for a repair man..... An hour with the boiler man. Emptied out store cupboard + took back off. Ice backed up behind cupboard + has split pipe. Tried hot water + hairdryer to melt ice. No luck. No replacement elbow. Water now dripping slowly into bucket.

🧵Transparency in Court of Protection

1. A month ago I wrote a blog post:

"It’s extraordinary to me that a court with transparency as a central philosophical principle produces court listings entirely unsuited to delivering on its stated objectives"

openjusticecourtofprotection.org/2022/05/25/whe… 2. For months, I've been talking with people at Court of Protection User Group meetings, managers, administrators and judges about the problem with the court lists. They've been concerned + moves are afoot to get the lists right. But so far, I'm not seeing improvements.

🧵

Another thread about hidden hearings.

Because there are still so many.

Court of Protection listings are still a long way from supporting the judiciary's aspirations for transparency in the #NotSecretCourt 2. I don't doubt the judiciary's commitment to open justice and transparency - and I believe it is shared by most Court of Protection judges and lawyers, and understood by most court staff.

And yet....

A thread

1. Almost all Court of Protection hearings are open for public to observe: they aren't "private".

The COP is committed to open justice + transparency.

But about half the COP hearings every day are branded "PRIVATE".

This sends the wrong message from #notsecretcourt @HMCTSgovuk 2. It's bizarre and counter-productive for a court that is very committed to open justice (and - whatever its failings - delivers on it better than most other parts of the justice system) to put out the message that half of its hearings are "PRIVATE".

A thread about listings in the "private" Court of Protection

This week some would-be observers contacted me to say the COP hearings in their regional court were all being held "in private" so they couldn't observe them.

How could they find some "public" ones? Many COP hearings (sometimes *most* of them) are listed as "in private" and "not open to public".

I know the court doesn't mean to say we can't observe them, but most people don't know that. Why should they?

It's a huge obstacle to open justice to list hearings as "private".

Another thread about problems with open justice in the Court of Protection

On 2nd March 2022, five public observers watched a hearing about kidney donation before Arbuthnot, J.

I think there were journalists there too.

We tweeted + blogged.

But so much went wrong today. The Arbuthnot J hearing was initially 'secret'.

It didn't appear anywhere in the lists: Not RCJ. Not under "Court of Protection" in CourtServe. Not even under "Liverpool" in CourtServe.

It was added to CourtServe after I personally phoned court staff and asked for a listing.

Hayden J is proposing hearing the case now - both counsel want to adjourn. "For a multitude of reasons" says Debra Powell QC (for the OS). She'll present reasons why capacity decision shouldn't be made now after lunch break. Restarting 1.40pm.

https://twitter.com/KitzingerCelia/status/1453678816530997250

Referring to 1(3) MCA 2005, Hayden comments "it's possible to overcook- Is all this NECESSARY to decide capacity?"

Counsel responds sharply "In my respectful submission My Lord, oral evidence from a consultant psychiatrist who has recently assessed her capacity is NECESSARY"

Hearing before Hayden J just starting. As public observers we have to be flexible - judges are hearing multiple cases and timing is a challenge. #NotSecretCourt

https://twitter.com/KitzingerCelia/status/1453662518908538882

Another challenging case of a pregnant woman with schizophrenia and doctors requesting c-section, although she said some weeks ago, when she had capacity, that she'd prefer a vaginal delivery. #NotSecretCourt

A thread about today's hearing on life-sustaining treatment before Mr. Justice Cobb in the Court of Protection. #NotSecretCourt

A man in his 50s, NK, is in the Intensive Care Unit. He went into hospital on 29th June 2021 with pneumonia. He got worse and on 5th July had a cardiac arrest.

He received cardio-pulmonary resuscitation for at least 12 mins.

Brain injury after CPR is very common. thelancet.com/journals/lance…

A thread about the trouble with transparency orders in the #NotSecretCourt.

I've observed 223 remote hearings in the Court of Protection.

I've just looked through my files.

I have had 98 transparency orders (TOs) served on me.

So for most hearings, I never get a TO. I think this is mostly because it's nobody's job to send me a TO.

The "Video Hearings Administrator" never sends them. When I've asked, the answer is "ask the court".

I've rarely been sent a TO by the judge's clerk.

When they come, it tends to be barristers who send them.

I'm watching the Court of Appeal consider whether a care plan to facilitate C's contact with a sex worker could be implemented without commission of an offence under the Sexual Offences Act 2003. It's an appeal against Hayden's judgment in the COP. Sir James Eadie QC is counsel for the Secretary of State of Justice, the Appellant in this case. He's presenting the case against Hayden J's decision that s.53A Sexual Offences Act has "little, if any relevance" to C's proposed contact with a sex worker.
blackstonechambers.com/barristers/jam…

The judgment has just been published

bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCOP…

openjusticecourtofprotection.org/2021/05/17/ago… via @OpenJusticeCoP Mother "suffers from a severe form of agoraphobia which is a classified mental illness + an impairment of or disturbance in the functioning of her mind or brain within the meaning of s.2(1) MCA" (para 7 judgment)

This morning I observed this hearing before Judge Rebecca Brown in the Court of Protection concerning whether it was in the best interests of a man in his 30s ("AD") to be vaccinated against Covid-19. #NotSecretCourt

https://twitter.com/OpenJusticeCoP/status/1390226725175443456

The case was brought by CCG who believe C-19 vaccination to be in AD's best interests.

AD was represented by OS who was of the same view.

His mother opposes vaccination.

AD has Down's syndrome, learning disability + autism. He's "resistant to all healthcare interventions".

This afternoon I attended an "urgent" Court of Protection hearing via video-link.

Another amputation case.

A 43 year old man, FA, gangrene in both feet, at risk of fatal septicaemia.

He's consistently stated he doesn't want double amputation, as surgically recommended. This is so similar to another case (ZA) I blogged about today

Both have paranoid schizophrenia, diabetes + severe infections

Both are refusing amputation.

ZA was heard by Cohen J (judgment tomorrow)

FA was heard by Hayden J + he gave oral judgment

openjusticecourtofprotection.org/2021/04/29/cou…

A fractious hearing today!

Counsel accused of "a charade, a game"; counter-claims "a tactical move".

We've had "my learned friend is simply wrong..." and "my learned friend has misrepresented my position".

Judge says "I can't give this case very much more of my time". Judical eyebrows were raised: "this debate is becoming increasingly unedifying" he says, as parties "have locked horns".

Today I cried in court. I was watching 3 lovely, articulate, passionate young women (the older 2 just out of their teens) come to terms with the fact that their Dad was going to die. Doctors believed that continuing life-sustaining treatment was not in his best interests. The family hoped+believed he would recover. There was a WhatsApp video his wife + brother believed showed P responding to them. Doctors (incl. independent expert) said no - it was involuntary movement. P is in a coma with catastrophic brain (stem) injury following stroke.

Today's hearing concerned a Trust's application for approval of an order for a 63 year old man with learning disabilities to be given a trans-urethral resection of the prostate (TURP) - using chemical or physical restraint if necessary.
nhs.uk/conditions/tra…

#NotSecretCourt He's terrified of hospitals because "that's where my Dad died". He currently has a catheter in place but that needs changing every 3 months with all the difficulties occasioned by a hospital visit. A TURP would fix the urinary problems once and for all.

Does being watched change how justice is done? Lawyers in the Court of Protection say it does. Here are the top 5 ways.

Are there more? Comments welcome!

[1] Cases are opened properly with case summaries highlighting history of case + key issues + introduction to the parties. [2] Role of observers is now routinely raised with P + P's family Responses include "acute distress", "mild anxiety", "neutrality", "active desire for observers + journalists to publicise injustice". Solicitors may need to become more skilled at these convos. + explaining TO.

I've spent most of today in court watching an urgent application before Mrs Justice Judd concerning a feeding tube for a woman (P) in her 70s with Lewy Body dementia. She's in hospital following admission in November last year with biliary sepsis + delirium. She's had a rough time in hospital. Pneumonia, surgery for gallstones + Covid for which she needed oxygen. All this combined to mean she can't swallow + nasogastric tube is now dislodged. Trust don't think replacement replacing it is in her best interests.