Eleanor Sibley

Overview

Eleanor regularly appears in the Court of Protection, instructed by the Official Solicitor, Accredited Legal Representatives and other litigation friends, local authorities, family members, and others.

She has particular expertise in health and welfare and deprivation of liberty applications, including cases concerning residence, care, contact, medical treatment, and disputes about capacity. She also acts in property and affairs matters.

Eleanor was junior counsel for the respondent in the Supreme Court in Re D [2019] UKSC 42, a leading case concerning the deprivation of liberty of young people aged 16 or 17.

Eleanor has an interest in the overlap between mental capacity law and other areas, including immigration, and access to social welfare and housing. She led a Strategic Legal Fund-funded project for the AIRE Centre concerning people who lack capacity to apply to the EU Settlement Scheme, and sits on  the advisory panel for the Migrant Mental Capacity Advocacy Project.

Notable Cases

Re D [2019] UKSC 42
Junior counsel for the respondent in a leading case concerning the deprivation of liberty of 16 and 17 year-olds.

Overview

Eleanor has a diverse public law and human rights practice, with a particular emphasis on cases concerning:

• Mental capacity
• “Vulnerable adults”
• Access to social welfare, and social care
• Rights  of EEA citizens and their family members under the UK-EU Withdrawal Agreement.

She is a contributing author of European Court of Human Rights and Mental Health (forthcoming, Bloomsbury Professional), with Anselm Eldergill (lead author) and Matthew Evans.

Eleanor has a background in EU and European human rights law gained through work at the AIRE Centre (a specialist charity), where she worked before qualifying as a barrister and remains as a consultant. There, her work has included work on third party interventions in the Supreme Court, CJEU and Court of Appeal. 

Notable Cases

Harrington v SSWP [2023] EWCA Civ 433
Pro bono junior counsel for the intervener (led by Tom de la Mare KC and Ravi Mehta) in a successful appeal against refusal of sickness benefits to a disabled child.

Overview

Eleanor has significant experience of cases concerning:

• EU free movement and social security law;
• Rights of EEA citizens and their family members to free movement, social welfare, and social security, under the UK-EU Withdrawal Agreement and equivalent agreements with the EEA and Switzerland;
• The EU Settlement Scheme (“EUSS”); and
• Migrants who lack mental capacity to apply to the EUSS.

Alongside private practice, Eleanor is a consultant barrister at the AIRE Centre (a charity specializing in fundamental rights under European law), where she has worked on interventions in leading cases concerning the Withdrawal Agreement, and where she also worked before qualifying as a barrister.

Eleanor was a member of JUSTICE's EUSS working party for its report: Reforming the EU Settlement Scheme: the Way Forward for the EUSS. 

Notable Cases

Harrington v SSWP [2023] EWCA Civ 433
Pro bono junior counsel for the intervener (led by Tom de la Mare KC and Ravi Mehta) in successful appeal against refusal of sickness benefits to a disabled child.

NZ v SSWP
Junior counsel for the appellant (led by Ravi Mehta) in a successful appeal concerning the test for the right of permanent residence under EU law, as it applies to accession-state nationals.

Saint Prix v SSWP [2012] UKSC 49 and C-07/12 Jessy Saint Prix
Work as part of in-house AIRE team on third party intervention concerning a pregnant agency worker’s right to social assistance benefits.