The Court of Protection declines to order costs against NHS Trust despite ‘substandard practice’ (West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust v AX (by her litigation friend, the Official Solicitor))

Article summary

Private Client analysis: Judgment was handed down by Deputy High Court Judge, Vikram Sachdeva KC, in the matter of the Official Solicitor’s application for costs against West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust (‘Trust’) arising from the Trust’s conduct in making an out of hour’s application seeking a declaration of incapacity and an order permitting a Caesarean Section on AX, a patient detained under the Mental Health Act 1983. While recognising that every case is fact specific, the court’s judgment provides a useful analysis of existing case law and guidance on when it has been appropriate for the court to exercise its discretionary power to depart from the general rule on costs, that there will be no order for costs as between the parties, contained in rule 19.3 of the Court of Protection Rules 2017. In the present case, the court found that there needed...