court of protection

Protecting the best interests of the vulnerable people you care for.

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What is the Court of Protection?

The Court of Protection is a specialised court that deals with financial, property, and welfare issues, related to individuals who lack the mental capacity to make decisions for themselves. The court commonly helps individuals who have learning disabilities, dementia, brain injuries, or mental illness.

The purpose of the Court of Protection is to ensure people who can’t make decisions for themselves are not exploited or refused their rights.

Our Court of Protection solicitors

It is not uncommon for individuals to lose the ability to make decisions for themselves. When someone in your life is no longer able to manage their financial affairs or make informed decisions about their personal welfare, you must try and establish if they have made a Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA). If so, it is at this point the attorney will need to step up and act.

However, if there are no such attorneys, and you want to be able to make these decisions it may be necessary to apply to the Court of Protection. Through this process you may be appointed as a deputy for said person, only then are you able to assist them with managing their personal affairs. Our Court of Protection solicitors can guide you through this process, or act as professional deputies themselves if required.

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How can we help if you are already a court of protection deputy?

There may be times when a deputy requires advice or assistance to perform their duties. This may include:

  • Help to complete annual reports

  • Acting as your advocate if matters become contentious, with support from our civil litigation team

  • Advice if you feel a co-deputy or attorney is not acting in the best financial interests of the person they are appointed for

  • Ad hoc advice to make sure you are staying within the boundaries of the Deputyship Order. This may include reviewing employment contracts for live-in carers, advice about deprivation of liberty, advice about deliberate deprivation of assets, etc

  • If you are being investigated due to possible mismanagement of someone’s finances, we can also assist you in responding to the Office of the Public Guardian which supervises deputies

What we can do for you

  • Deputyship application for financial affairs
  • Deputyship application for health and welfare
  • Trustee application for sale of jointly owned property
  • Statutory Will application
  • Acting as professional Deputy, Attorney or Trustee
  • Acting as advocate for Court of Protection matters (a cheaper option to instructing a barrister)
  • Contested Deputy or Statutory Will applications (either you’ve made an application that someone has objected to, or you want to object to the application)
  • Safeguarding issues
  • Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards/Section 21a applications (where you do not agree with where your friend/family member is living/will be living)
  • Care home fee issues
  • Financial assessments

Children with special educational needs

Once your child turns 18, it is illegal for you as their parent or guardian to manage their money.

This means that you cannot speak to the bank on their behalf, make any payments from their account, or collect state benefits for them (unless you are a Department for Work and Pensions [DWP] Appointee).

If your child has capacity, they can make a Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA). If your child lacks capacity, then a deputyship application will need to be made for them. If needed, a capacity assessment can be completed by a social worker or GP.

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  1. Lasting Powers of Attorney

    If your child has capacity, when they turn 18, they can make an LPA to enable you to make decisions for your child on their behalf.

    There are two types of LPAs that can be made. You can choose to put one or both in place:

    • Health and welfare: for decisions on where you live and with whom, the care you receive and more

    • Property and finances: for running bank accounts, buying or selling property, and managing investments

  2. Deputyship

    If your child lacks capacity, a deputyship application will need to be made to the Court of Protection to appoint a deputy or multiple deputies.

    Unlike LPAs, this is usually only granted for property and finances

    Making a deputyship application should be considered by the child’s family and local authority from around the time the child is 16, so that a deputy can be in place for when the child turns 18.

    This is a longer process than making LPAs, as it is not the child themselves making the choice of who they want to manage their finances.

  3. Discretionary Trust Wills

    If you are intending to leave money in your Will to your child and they receive state benefits, you should consider a discretionary trust.

    This will ensure your child’s entitlement to benefits is not affected by their inheritance.

Court of Protection FAQs

We help clients plan for the future and get help from the Court of Protection every day.

Here are the most common questions we receive in regard to deputyship applications and orders.

  1. What does it mean to ‘lack capacity’?

    A person may be deemed to lack capacity if they have:

    • Severe learning difficulties*

    • Suffered a serious brain injury or illness

    • Dementia or a similar degenerative disease

    The general rule is that if a person is unable to make important decisions for themselves when it is necessary for those decisions to be made, they would be considered to ‘lack capacity’.

    *If you are the parent of a child with severe learning difficulties, be aware that you WILL NOT have the automatic right to manage your child’s affairs once they reach 18.

  2. What is the difference between a Court of Protection deputyship and a Lasting Power of Attorney?

    A Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) can be used to give someone similar powers to that of a court-appointed deputy.

    The key difference is that an LPA is used to empower a person to look after your affairs should something happen to you in the future, whereas a Court of Protection Deputyship can be applied to manage the affairs of another after they’ve been deemed to have lost capacity.

  3. Who can be a Court of Protection deputy?

    Anyone over the age of 18 years old with a sound mind can act as a deputy. Family or friends are the court’s preferred option if this is a possibility because this reduces the cost that the vulnerable person will incur.

    If there are no family or friends able and willing to act as a deputy, a professional deputy (such as a solicitor) can be appointed. At Wilkin Chapman, we can act as a professional deputy. Get in touch to find out more.

    Where the vulnerable person has very limited assets, it may be deemed more appropriate for the local authority to act as deputy because their charges are less than that of a professional deputy. However, generally, local authorities will only agree to do this if there are no family or friends involved.

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Submit an enquiry and one of our team of experts will be in touch as soon as possible to discuss your needs.

Or call the Court of Protection team on 01522 515011

Solicitor Keighan Lovett 01472 253942 Grimsby
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