Court of protection and deputyship solicitors

If your loved one loses their mental capacity to make decisions about their health, wellbeing or finances, it’s likely that you’ll want to protect their best interests. Our Court of Protection solicitors can help you to do just that.

What does a Court of Protection do?

A Court of Protection is put in place to protect the needs of vulnerable people who do not have the mental capacity to make their own decisions about their finances and welfare. Vulnerable people may have dementia, learning difficulties or may have suffered a brain injury. By appointing a ‘deputy’, which is somebody who makes the decisions regarding the vulnerable person’s welfare and finances, the Court of Protection helps to protect the person and ensures that decisions are made in their best interest. 

The Court of Protection can help to determine whether or not an individual has the mental capacity to make these decisions for themselves, appoint a deputy and ensure the vulnerable person is not exploited in any way.

How our Court of Protection solicitors can help you

If you feel that your loved one would benefit from the Court of Protection, our solicitors can help you to navigate the process, choose a deputy and more.

Deputyship solicitors

If you or a relative do not have a power of attorney in place and subsequently lose capacity, a deputyship application to the Court of Protection can be made.

Helping you to apply for deputyship

We can provide guidance through the application process, which can take many months to finalise with the courts. One of the many disadvantages to deputyship is that the deputy often has far more limited powers than an attorney and may have to ask permission from the Court to deal with certain assets. 

The deputy also has to account to the Court at all times and provide annual accounts and information on resolutions made on behalf of the incapable person for the Court to approve. We can help you throughout this process.

Acting as a deputy

If there is no one to act as a deputy, or you would rather a legal professional dealt with the vulnerable person’s affairs instead, our deputyship solicitors can help. Our professional deputies have been pre-approved by the Court of Protection and are highly experienced, meaning you can beassured that your loved one’s affairs will be in order.

Statutory Wills

If a relative has lost mental capacity and does not have a will or has a will that is old or poorly drafted, a Statutory Will application to the Court of Protection can often rectify the situation. This is where the Court of Protection works with the vulnerable person’s deputy, attorney or solicitor to put a new will in place.

Our private client solicitors can guide you through the often lengthy and complex process and offer advice as to the likely success of the application.

We can also help with a wide variety of other applications to the Court of Protection, including:

• Personal injury claims: Helping you to claim compensation on behalf of someone who has suffered a brain injury.
• Personal injury trusts: Helping you to set up a personal injury trust with any compensation the vulnerable person is awarded following a personal injury claim.
• Gift applications: Helping you to give a gift on behalf of someone who does not have the mental capacity to make that decision for themselves.
• Contested applications: If you are not happy with the deputy chosen to represent the vulnerable person, you can contest their application.
• Emergency Court of Protection applications: If an urgent decision needs to be made on a vulnerable person’s behalf, we can help speed up the process via an emergency Court of Protection application.

Get in touch

For further information or advice please call our Court of Protection lawyers on 01753 889995 or email enquiries@bpcollins.co.uk.