— This article compares Court of Protection cases with Bleak House's Jarndyce and Jarndyce litigation - including s21A appeals trundling on for months or years, like "wading through treacle", occasionally improving matters but often achieving nothing but distress. Specific welfare cases are mentioned, including a three-year case with 30 orders but with the main issues yet to be decided, and an 18-month case brought by a local authority which made more or less no difference but left the family financially and emotionally broken. The author hopes that the post-AGNI reduction in "DOLS paternalism" will allow more time to focus on those cases of greatest need, and suggests that now could be the moment to overhaul the court's case management approach to welfare cases.
Full details available at: https://www.mentalhealthlaw.co.uk/Rod_Campbell-Taylor,_%27Supreme_Court%27s_decision_in_AGNI%27_(Law_Society_Gazette,_26_June_2026)?id=290626-1217