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22 April 2020 / Stephen Gold
Issue: 7883 / Categories: Features , Procedure & practice , Civil way , Covid-19
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Civil way/COVID-19: 24 April 2020

COVID-19

 

In isolated care Hayden J sitting in the Court of Protection on Skype in BP and S County Council and another [2020] EWCOP 17 tackled the almost insoluble problem posed by an 89-year-old, resident in a care home, suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and cut off from his family on account of the home’s decision to suspend visits because of the pandemic. The home had adopted a similar stance in relation to its other residents. The suspension was activated at 5pm on 20 March 2020 and here was the judge searching for a solution as emergency business five days later. The resident’s daughter as her father’s litigation friend—she was ‘balanced and even-handed, said the judge, and so not disqualified from that role—sought to have him released into her 24 hour per day single handed care if visits were not reinstated. The judge had no doubt that the father derived enormous benefit from contact with his family and also from friends and that this contributed very significantly to his general

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Carey Olsen—Patrick Ormond

Carey Olsen—Patrick Ormond

Partner joinscorporate and finance practice in British Virgin Islands

Dawson Cornwell—Naomi Angell

Dawson Cornwell—Naomi Angell

Firm strengthens children department with adoption and surrogacy expert

Penningtons Manches Cooper—Graham Green

Penningtons Manches Cooper—Graham Green

Media and technology expert joins employment team as partner in Cambridge

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A Court of Appeal ruling has clarified that ‘rent’ must be monetary—excluding tenants paid in labour from statutory protection. In this week's NLJ, James Naylor explains Garraway v Phillips, where a tenant worked two days a week instead of paying rent
Thousands more magistrates are to be recruited, under a major shake-up to speed up and expand the hiring process
The winners of the LexisNexis Legal Awards 2026 have now been announced, marking another outstanding celebration of excellence, innovation, and impact across the legal profession
Three men wrongly imprisoned for a combined 77 years have been released—yet received ‘not a penny’ in compensation, exposing deep flaws in the justice system. Writing in NLJ this week, Dr Jon Robins reports on Justin Plummer, Oliver Campbell and Peter Sullivan, whose convictions collapsed amid discredited forensics, ‘oppressive’ police interviews and unreliable ‘cell confessions’
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