European Court of Human Rights judgment
The BBC reports that the European Court of Human Rights has just given judgment on a case that came before the Court of Appeal in 2006. This is the case of AD –and- OH (A Child: By AD His Litigation Friend) v Bury Metropolitan Council [2006].
This case was one of a number, where the court had restricted the rights of parents to sue when their children were taken into care as a result of a misdiagnosis or finding of abuse that proved to be incorrect. The following cases affirmed the principle that whilst a child might have a claim against a public authority in such circumstances, the parents would not.
JD v East Berkshire Community Health NHS Trust and Others and Two Other Actions [2005]
In the case before the European Court of Human Rights (which the writer has not yet read) the Claimant was awarded a substantial sum after Bury Council put her one-year-old into care for four months. The local authority suspected that she had been physically abused due to the presence of bone fractures, but a later medical diagnosis showed that the child was suffering from brittle bone disease.
Such cases are very rare, but the consequences of a misdiagnosis and the following care proceedings can be devastating, as was seen in the case of Webster v Norfolk County Council and Another 2009.
In the present case, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled the local authority had made a “number of fundamental errors”.
The case of AD and OH versus the United Kingdom can be found on the BAILLI website. We will be summarising the case on our website in the very near future and commenting on the effect that it may have in this area of the law.
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