Hillingdon London Borough Council v Neary

A local authority that detains an incapacitated adult away from his family under the Mental Capacity Act 2005 deprivation-of-liberty regime must operate the safeguards lawfully and bears the practical and evidential burden of justifying that its arrangements are better than care within the family; a flawed best-interests/standard-authorisation process that fails to consider less restrictive alternatives or to bring the dispute promptly before the court breaches Articles 5 and 8 ECHR.