AB, Re (Disclosure of Position Statements) [2025] EWCOP 25 (T3)

Judgment concerning practice and procedure for disclosing position statements to an observer

Professor Celia Kitzinger, who runs the Open Justice Court of Protection Project, had been observing proceedings concerning the validity of an advance decision reported at Re AB (ADRT: Validity and Applicability) [2025] EWCOP 20 (T3). At the conclusion of the final hearing she requested the position statements of the parties. This raised issues of her status in court - as she is neither an accredited journalist nor a legal blogger - and the operation of the current transparency regime.

In this judgment Poole J tackles those issues before allowing the application as it advances the open justice principle [42]. In the course of deliberating, he realised there is no guidance on the provision of position statements to observers of Court of Protection hearings so at [36] he puts forward a process to be considered in future cases.   

Read the judgment in full on Bailii