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20 January 2023 / Laura Davidson
Issue: 8009 / Categories: Features , Court of Protection , Mental health
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Cloak & dagger in the Court of Protection? (Pt 2)

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Is it time for the shadowy practice of covert medication to be brought into the light? Dr Laura Davidson thinks so
  • The hearing following disclosure of the surreptitious medication duplicity in Re A (Covert Medication: Closed Proceedings).
  • The decision’s lawfulness in excluding from the hearings the mother of the young woman at the centre of the case.
  • The practice of covert medication and the lack of legal safeguards surrounding its use.

I recently provided a detailed history of Re A (Covert Medication: Closed Proceedings) [2022] EWCOP 44 (See Pt 1, 172 NLJ 8005, pp9-10). Here, I cover the hearing following disclosure of the surreptitious medication duplicity, reflect on the decision’s lawfulness in excluding B, the mother of the young woman at the centre of this case, from hearings, and discuss the practice of covert medication itself.

Background

Initially, a brief outline is provided for those coming to the case anew.

A, who had mild learning disability and Asperger’s

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Thackray Williams—Lucy Zhu

Thackray Williams—Lucy Zhu

Dual-qualified partner joins as head of commercial property department

Morgan Lewis—David A. McManus

Morgan Lewis—David A. McManus

Firm announces appointment of next chair

Burges Salmon—Rebecca Wilsker

Burges Salmon—Rebecca Wilsker

Director joins corporate team from the US

NEWS
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When it comes to free legal advice, demand massively outweighs supply. 'Millions of people are excluded from access to justice as they don’t have anywhere to turn for free advice—or don’t know that they can ask for help,' Bhavini Bhatt, development director at the Access to Justice Foundation, writes in this week's NLJ
When an ex-couple is deciding who gets what in the divorce or civil partnership dissolution, when is it appropriate for a third party to intervene? David Burrows, NLJ columnist and solicitor advocate, considers this thorny issue in this week’s NLJ
NLJ's latest Charities Appeals Supplement has been published in this week’s issue
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