john hemming

The Family Liaison Officer.

May 9, 2013 252 comments

I chanced upon a remark in my recent reading that struck me as so callous, so utterly devoid of empathy, that I stopped short. Who had made this remark? A Family Liaison Officer! As is my wont, I immediately started researching the qualities needed to be a Family Liaison Officer, and the training involved. The [...]

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Hyperventilating Over Paedophilia

August 24, 2011 7 comments
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Paedophilia is an emotive subject; banned in ‘polite’ media circles, it has become virtually the exclusive province of the Blogosphere. Every day – as Matt Wardman discovered when he took over my e-mail account whilst I was indisposed! – I receive long emotive e-mails, apparently addressed to half the world; Her Majesty the Queen, the [...]

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Wig and Pen stuff.

May 2, 2011 20 comments
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Were it not for that well documented phenomena whereby those who sit above the salt never sweat, though may discretely perspire, I might be tempted to think that Carl Gardner was getting agitated. Twice in a month he has felt it necessary to refer to the RP v Nottingham City Council case in which John [...]

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Secrecy-creep.

April 20, 2011 27 comments
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Just as we are digesting the news that our judiciary don’t want any scurrilous hacks or members of parliament commenting on their decisions, or investigating stories, especially not when they are listening to the pleas of Doctors who wish to dispose of their patients in a far from humane manner – the GMC, with impeccable [...]

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A breath-taking extension of the Hyper-injunction.

April 19, 2011 39 comments
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Historically, the Court of Protection ‘protected the purse, not the person’. The Mental Capacity Act of 2005 dramatically extended the remit of the court to include the ability to ‘protect the person’ as well – from October 2007 they were able to make decisions regarding, for instance, where a person lived, what medical treatment they [...]

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Hello Dols!

April 8, 2011 8 comments
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Three cheers for Sir Nicholas Wall the President of the Family Division for his recent judgement in A v A Local Authority and Ors. The decision is one of those Court of Protection Cases that has been made public and so we can read it on BAILII. Whilst the judge is to be commended, the [...]

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Parliamentary Supremacy, Privilege and the Hyper Injunction, Part 1

March 28, 2011 33 comments

Recently our learned editor posted on the serious matter of the use, or rather misuse, of the Super Injunction and the Hyper Injunction: To be clear, “Super Injunction” refers to an order of the High Court to the effect not only that the details of litigation may not be revealed, but that it may not [...]

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