Check out the primary source! https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/court-of-protection-daily-hearing-list
The Court of Protection works like a hospital corridor at night: fluorescent, necessary and full of decisions nobody wanted to need!
The daily hearing list for 24 July, updated on 23 July, again shows the steady load of welfare and deprivation of liberty cases being heard at First Avenue House and elsewhere. These are cases about adults who may lack mental capacity to make decisions for themselves. The court decides where they live, what care they receive and whether restrictions on their movement are lawful.
A deprivation of liberty case usually means a person is under continuous supervision and is not free to leave. That may be in a care home, hospital or supported living placement. The phrase sounds technical, as if it belongs in a filing cabinet. It is really about locked doors, escorted outings, family grief and public bodies trying to keep someone safe without unlawfully confining them.
The daily list is important. Open justice is not only about famous trials and commercial battles with seven silks on each side. It is also about seeing the ordinary machinery of state power. Councils, NHS bodies, families and protected parties appear in these lists every day. The cases are anonymised for good reason, but the pattern is public: social care law is carrying serious human weight.
The Mental Capacity Act asks whether a person can make a specific decision at a specific time. If not, decisions must be made in that person’s best interests. That is not the same as doing what a council prefers, what a family wants or what saves the most money. The person remains the centre of the case, even when their name is hidden.
For local authorities, the commercial pressure is severe. Each case can involve social work evidence, medical evidence, legal aid, urgent hearings and scarce placements. A lawful care plan may still be expensive. An unlawful one may be more expensive once damages, criticism and delay arrive with sensible shoes.
The listing also points to a growing literacy problem. Families often meet the Court of Protection at the worst moment of their lives and find themselves inside a system full of acronyms, orders and phrases that sound like they were designed to keep emotion at arm’s length. Plain explanation is not a courtesy here. It is part of access to justice.
There is no easy political slogan for these cases. Too much state control is frightening. Too little protection can be dangerous. The court’s daily work sits between those fears, making decisions one person at a time.
Rights litigation is not always loud. Sometimes it is listed at 10.30 and called directions.
Author: Thomas Greatbanks
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