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05 August 2010 / Ed Mitchell
Issue: 7429 / Categories: Features , Public , Community care , Mental health
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Protecting the vulnerable

Ed Mitchell uncovers some serious flaws in the care of vulnerable adults

Concern is starting to be expressed at senior levels of the Court of Protection about the unilateral way in which some local authorities carry out their protection of vulnerable adults work. A recent decision of Baker J, sitting as a nominated judge of the Court of Protection, was highly critical of a local authority for removing a young man with severe learning disabilities from the home of his long-term carer and then failing to make any arrangements for contact between them for a number of months (G v E & Others [2010] EWHC 621 (Fam), [2010] All ER (D) 120 (Apr)). Neither of those actions was authorised by order of the Court of Protection, as they should have been, and the judge found “serious breaches” of the adult’s and carer’s rights to respect for their private and family lives under Art 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (the Convention). The theme was developed by Munby LJ, speaking extra-judicially

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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

NEWS
Freezing orders in divorce proceedings can unexpectedly ensnare third parties and disrupt businesses. In NLJ this week, Lucy James of Trowers & Hamlins explains how these orders—dubbed a ‘nuclear weapon’—preserve assets but can extend far beyond spouses to companies and business partners 
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
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’
A quiet month for employment cases still delivers key legal clarifications. In his latest Employment Law Brief for NLJ, Ian Smith reports that whistleblowing protection remains intact even where disclosures are partly self-serving, provided the worker reasonably believes they serve the ‘public interest’ 
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