Court of Protection

The Court of Protection is the branch of the Court which deals with the affairs of people who lack the capacity to make decisions for himself or herself. Under the Mental Capacity Act 2005, such persons are referred to as P.  Whilst an Attorney or Deputy can deal with the day to day decisions for P, certain decisions can only be made by the Court. These include making a Will for P (known as a 'Statutory Will') and making lifetime gifts out of P's assets. We have considerable experience in dealing with both contested and non-contested Court of Protection applications and can negotiate on your behalf to achieve a settlement, or represent you at Court where that is not possible.   

The most common examples of the work we handle concern statutory Wills, lifetime gifts and deeds of variation of estates. 

Recent case studies:

• We acted for trustees of a settlement where a child who lacked capacity was approaching adulthood and about to have unlimited access to substantial capital. To protect P’s best interests, we obtained the Court’s approval to a variation of that settlement with significant tax advantages.
  
• After P had suffered injuries in a road traffic accident and received a six-figure settlement from an insurance company, a successful application was made for provision out of P’s estate for a relative who was P’s principal carer.
  
• We acted for two charities which were the residuary beneficiaries of P's existing Will. P's family made an application for a statutory Will which would have removed the charities from the Will entirely on the basis that there was a close relationship between P and her family, but no relationship between P and the charities. We argued the fact that the charities were mentioned in the existing Will, which had been made many years earlier, showed a settled intention on P's part to benefit them and that it would not be in her best interests to disregard this entirely by removing the charities as beneficiaries. We managed to reach a negotiated settlement which preserved a substantial proportion of the estate for the charities. 
            
  For further information please contact us or follow the link below.
  
  Court and principles under the 2005 Act

Top of Page