Child Law

Issue: A young child was seriously ill in hospital, and in the opinion of the treating surgical team needed urgent, life saving surgery. The child’s family did not agree with this decision. The incident occurred out of normal office hours, the first call being received late in the evening.

Weightmans’ Investigation and Action: As part of our 24-hour /365-day service, we responded immediately to the urgency of the situation. We spoke directly to the surgeon to establish the need for surgery and to confirm the attempts that had been made to explain the situation to the child’s family and obtain consent.

We then contacted the emergency High Court judge on call, and presented an emergency application over the telephone. We facilitated direct contact with the doctors so that the judge could ask questions, and presented relevant case law in support of an order. In just a few hours, we had  obtained authorisation from the High Court to proceed with the surgery in the best interests of the child.

Result: Surgery was performed successfully and the child survived. The next day we completed the necessary paperwork and issued the formal court applications. We continued to liaise with the family, their lawyers and the court until the order was finalised.