Children can sue the healthcare trusts and local authorities that wrongly conclude that they have been the victims of abuse, the Court of Appeal for England and Wales ruled last week, in a judgment with far reaching consequences.

Three judges, headed by the master of the rolls, Lord Phillips, held that the public policy considerations barring claims of wrongful diagnosis have been swept away by the Human Rights Act, which came into force in October 2000. But the court ruled that it would be against public policy for parents to be able to sue for the harm they suffered as a result of their child's mistaken diagnosis. …