AXH -v- Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (anonymity order)

High CourtKing's Bench DivisionAnonymity Order

Claim Number: KB-2024-MAN-000050

In The High Court Of Justice
King’s Bench Division
Manchester District Registry

26 March 2024

Before:
District Judge Peters

Between:
AXH (A Protected Party) Proceeding By Her Litigation Friend & Mother MXL
-v-
Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

Anonymity Order

Before District Judge Peters sitting at Manchester Civil Justice Centre, 1 Bridge
Street West, Manchester, M60 9DJ

UPON an approval of an interim payment for the Claimant

UPON the Claimant’s Application

AND UPON

(1) Consideration of the Article 8 rights of the Claimant/Litigation Friend to respect for private and family life, and the Article 10 right to freedom of expression.

(2) It appearing that non-disclosure of the identity of the Claimant and Litigation Friend is necessary to secure the proper administration of justice and in order to protect the interests of the Claimant and that there is no sufficient countervailing public interest in disclosure.

(3) The Defendant indicating its neutrality to the making of the order and there being no representations from the press or any other interested party.

AND UPON the Court being satisfied, pursuant to CPR 39.2(4) that an order in the terms below is necessary in order to protect the interests of the Claimant and there is no sufficient countervailing public interest in disclosure;

WHEREAS for the purposes of this order:

(1) ‘Publication’ includes any speech, writing, broadcast, or other communication in whatever form (including internet and social media), which is addressed to the public at large or any section of the public.

(2) Publication for the purpose of this Order includes any further publication (as defined in subparagraph (1) above) from the date of this Order, even if such information has derived from a previous stage or stages of these proceedings.

IT IS ORDERED, pursuant to section 11 of the Contempt of Court Act 1981, section 6 of the Human Rights Act 1998, CPR 5.4B to D and CPR 39.2, as follows:

  1. The identity of the Claimant as a party to these proceedings is confidential and shall not be published. The Claimant and her Litigation Friend shall be referred to in these proceedings as AXH and MXL respectively.
  2. There shall not be disclosed in any report of the proceedings the name, address or picture of the Claimant, or of the Claimant’s Litigation Friend, or any member of her family, nor any information which is liable to or might lead to the identification of the Claimant, her Litigation Friend, or any member of her family.
  3. There shall be substituted for all purposes in these proceedings, in place of references to the Claimant and her Litigation Friend by name, references to “AXH” and “MXL” respectively.
  4. Persons other than the parties to these proceedings shall be prohibited from inspecting or obtaining copies of any statement of case, judgment or order, or any other document from the court records unless the same have been anonymized as set out above, the addresses of the Claimant and her Litigation Friend have been removed, and there has been redacted any information which might identify the Claimant or her Litigation Friend, without further order of the Court. Any application for permission to inspect or obtain a non- anonymized version must be made on notice to the Claimant in accordance with CPR 5.4C(6). The court will effect service.
  5. The Court file shall be clearly marked with the words “An anonymity order was made in this case on [date of this Order] and any application by a non-party to inspect or obtain a copy document from this file must be dealt with in accordance with the terms of that Order”.
  6. Any person affected by any of the restrictions in this Order may apply to the Court to vary or discharge this Order (or so much of it as affects that person), but written notice of any such application and the evidence relied upon must first be given to the Claimant’s solicitors. The court will effect service.
  7. Pursuant to the ‘Practice Guidance: Publication of Privacy and Anonymity Orders’ issued by the Master of the Rolls dated 16 April 2019 a copy of this Order shall be published on the Judicial Website of the High court of Justice (www.judiciary.uk). For that purpose, a court officer will send a copy of the order by email to the Judicial Office at judicialwebupdates@judiciary.uk.
  8. Claimant to serve sealed order.
  9. The costs of obtaining the order be costs in the case.

DATED this 27 day of February 2024