Judge halts care litigation over concerns taxpayers’ money could be wasted

A senior judge has halted Court of Protection litigation centred on the care of a paralysed man after raising concerns that taxpayers’ money might be wasted.

The man, who is in his 30s, had suffered brain damage and been left tetraplegic after falling from a roof and banging his head, Mr Justice Holman had been told.

No-one else had been involved in the accident and the man had been unable to recover damages.

Mr Justice Holman, who also sits in the Family Division of the High Court, had begun to analyse the case after the man asked to leave a specialist unit and be cared for at his home.

He had been asked to decide whether the man had the mental capacity to make decisions about residence and care – and he raised concerns at hearing in October

But Mr Justice Holman said in reality there were ”very few options”.

”Already at least £130,000 has been incurred on legal expenditure in the course of these proceedings, all of it funded out of public funds,” the judge had said.

”I am, frankly, deeply concerned at the prospect of incurring yet further tens of thousands of pounds of expenditure of public funds on some abstract determination of capacity if, realistically, there is no choice in the way forward for this particular patient in his circumstances.”

Bosses at a local authority in Berkshire – Slough Borough Council – who had responsibility for the man’s welfare had said they would continue to pay the £156,000 a year needed to fund care at the specialist unit.

But they had said the council could not pay the £468,000 a year needed to fund a home-care package.

The judge suggested that in such circumstances any ruling he made about the man’s decision-making capacity would be ”abstract”.

Mr Justice Holman reviewed the case at a hearing in London on Monday.

Medical experts felt that the man’s mental capacity to make decision fluctuated, the judge was told.

Two psychiatrists had examined the man and thought that he currently had the mental capacity to make decisions about his care and welfare.

The judge ruled that litigation should end.

Court of Protection judges consider issues relating to people who may lack the mental capacity to make decisions.

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