John McKendrick successfully appears in forced caesarean proceedings

John McKendrick, instructed by Hannah Taylor of Bevan Brittan, appeared for the applicant health bodies and local authority in complex proceedings before the Court of Protection to declare a patient lacks capacity to make decisions about the place and mode of delivery of her unborn baby and to declare that it is in her best interests to be the subject of a placental location scan, forced caesarean section and to receive contraception following the birth of her child. Mr Justice Cobb acceded to these declarations and authorised the applicants to use reasonable force and restraint to access the patient’s home. He also declared force could be used, in the exceptional circumstances of these proceedings, to grant the applicants authority to use force to convey the patient to a safe place to assess her capacity to make long term decisions about contraception.

The related judgments of Pauffley J and Cobb J are found here:

• http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCOP/2014/8.html
• http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCOP/2014/11.html
• http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCOP/2014/13.html

The decisions have received significant media attention in the national press, the legal press, the radio and television:

• The Telegraph
• The Daily Mail
• The Times
• New Law Journal
• The Mirror
• The Metro

News 15 Jul, 2014