Law digests: 19 February 2021

Court of Protection

Re TA (recording of hearings; communication with court office) A local authority v TA and others [2021] EWCOP 3, [2021] All ER (D) 91 (Jan)

In proceedings concerning an elderly woman with a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s dementia (GA), for whom the local authority was responsible, and who was currently cared for at home by her adult son (TA), the Court of Protection made an ‘exceptional’ order, namely an injunction, to restrain TA from communicating with the court office by email and telephone. Further, in circumstances where TA had allegedly referred to himself as a ‘Wikileaks Wannabe’, and where (in the context of remote hearings due to the COVID-19 pandemic) he contended that he was ‘outside the jurisdiction of the court’ and could record conversations as he wished while in ‘his jurisdiction’ (his home), the court indicated that it would not accede to his application for permission to record the court hearings, concerning GA. It considered that there would be a ‘publication’ of any recorded information from the proceedings, and