The Court of Protection is facing fresh questions about transparency, as The Independent reveals that its judges are making life-or-death decisions over the phone, with incomplete evidence, in proceedings that are not always recorded.
The out-of-hours rulings about care or medical treatment are sometimes made following one-sided testimony, an investigation by the newspaper has uncovered…
John Hemming MP described the use of out-of-hours hearings by local authorities as “appalling”, and accused ministers of complacency in failing to investigate the practice.
Legal experts believe the out-of-hours service can be used cynically to rush through rulings that would be more rigorously opposed in court. Some hearings have allegedly been so one-sided that in at least one case legal action was later taken to compensate the family involved.
The Court of Protection makes welfare decisions on behalf of those deemed incapable of choosing for themselves. Written evidence is rarely used out-of-hours, so the judge usually relies on an over-the-phone case summary by one barrister.
A leading barrister said: “There’s no real investigation out-of-hours over whether [an action] would be appropriate. It’s just the local authority ringing the judge up. The parents are not part of the proceedings, so it’s on full trust that the barrister gives their side. We can see from the transcripts that judges don’t ask enough questions and the barristers don’t tell them the other side of the story.”
The lawyer asked not to be named for fear of being accused of contempt of court for even discussing the proceedings with a journalist. Another barrister said of the out-of-hours service was being abused: “The more interesting ones are welfare questions rather than medical because they’re often not genuinely urgent.”
Full story: Revealed: How UK justice is dispensed out of hours down the phone line