Promoting #OpenJustice in the English Court of Protection
Co-directed by @GillLoomesQuinn + @KitzingerCelia
Check our website for info on observing hearings
Nov 14, 2022 • 45 tweets • 29 min read
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Every six weeks or so, we step back and take a look at how the Court of Protection is doing in relation to open justice and transparency. Here's our assessment for 14th November listings and the last six weeks of observation. @HMCTSgovuk2/
We've added another 2 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) since last time.
They still represent a fairly modest collection of requirements for us to be able to support the judicial commitment to #openjustice and transparency in the Court of Protection.
Sep 20, 2022 • 30 tweets • 14 min read
🧵Transparency
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Once a month or so, we look systematically at COP listings in Courtel/CourtServe (the publicly available listing service for the courts) to check how well they support transparency + open justice.
Here's September's analysis
Some good news
Some bad. 2/
We've kept our ambitions for the listings realistically modest.
We're only asking that COP hearings are in the COP list, make clear the public can observe, tell us whether a hearing is remote/hybrid/in-person, supply contact details + some info on what the hearing is about.
Jul 31, 2022 • 25 tweets • 12 min read
A thread 🧵
Towards the end of every month we do a systematic overview of the listings for just one day, to see to what extent they successfully implement the judicial commitment to open justice.
Here's today's assessment. 2/
We're developing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for the Court of Protection's implementation of open justice.
So far, we have 5 rather basic FPIs without which we don't think open justice is possible. (Lawyers aren't disagreeing with us).
Surely these are achievable?
Jul 1, 2022 • 25 tweets • 18 min read
Bringing you a Daily Hidden Hearing for July!
These are hearings that should be in the COP list on @CourtServe but are instead hidden in daily cause lists across England and Wales.
Why does the Open Justice Court of Protection Project make its own lists of hearings?
Can't members of the public rely on the lists the Court publishes: lists from the Royal Courts of Justice, First Avenue House and CourtServe?
It's a lot of work - here's why we do it.
One very important reason is that the published lists 'hide' some hearings by listing them in the wrong place.
Other hearings never appear on the court-published lists: they're effectively 'secret'.
'Hidden' and 'secret' hearings are a massive problem for open justice.
Hayden J said it was not in AH's BI to continue to receive ventilation.
LJ Moylan gave main judgment: "I have, very regrettably, come to the conclusion that the Judge's decision cannot stand+must be set aside"
There were 5 grounds of appeal. Only one was upheld - the concern about the Judge's visit to AH in hospital after the hearing was finished + before he handed down his judgment.