Family law

Hearings before the Court of Protection should be held in private unless there was good reason why they should not. The statutory arrangements of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 mirrored and re-articulated one long-standing common law exception to the principle that justice had to be done in open court.

Careful consideration had always to be given to the precise terms to be included in an order restricting publication of information concerning incapacitated adults which would always be determined by the specific facts of the individual case. Orders for the restriction of publication of information had to be founded on Convention rights.