This case involved concerns raised by the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) about the way an attorney was looking after his father’s affairs. There is nothing unusual in that and the OPG often brings cases to Court where their investigations of an attorney’s behaviour have found problems. In this case, the attorney felt aggrieved […]
In this case, Allied Services Trust applied to be a property and affairs deputy for a person known as TWAH. The CEO of Allied Services Trust was already acting as interim deputy. The Court looked at whether Allied Services Trust could be a deputy and if it could, what the requirements would be. Readers might […]
Regular readers of the blog will remember when Shaun Hill was jailed for breaching an injunction the Court of Protection had put in place to protect his father. New readers can find our discussion of that case here . In this case, Imre Stalter was at risk of a jail sentence for breaching Orders designed […]
You might remember the case where the outsourcing of Deputyship duties went wrong? In the second round of litigation in this case following the Court’s decision that Matrix had acted not in compliance with either its statutory or fiduciary duty (as mentioned in our Lynne Bradey’s article here “Trust corporation fails vulnerable clients” – link […]
LCN v KF & Ors [2019] EWCOP This sad case involved CJF, a 13 year old boy who had suffered extensive injuries through negligence at his birth and who needed significant 24 hour care for all aspects of his life. He sadly died a few days after the case was decided. CJF’s mother was 18 […]
You might be surprised to find that the answer is yes. The case This case (Case Reference [2018] EWCOP 35) involves an elderly gentleman known as KJ who suffers from dementia. There were concerns about the behaviour of two men, one named Shaun Hill. It appears from the Judgement that KJ was Shaun Hill’s father. […]
Before there is a flurry of over excited gifting, let me make it clear that this gift was only approved by the Court after a thorough consideration of the situation and a best interest assessment. Attorneys have very limited powers to make gift without the Court’s approval. For example, an attorney can buy a birthday […]
http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCOP/2018/17.html Readers might remember that Mr Fitzgerald, a very persistent maker of Court of Protection applications, reappeared a few weeks ago when his latest application was dismissed as without merit. The last instalment can be found here It seems that Sir James Munby had not heard the last of the tireless Mr Fitzgerald after all. […]
Readers of the blog might remember Desmond Maurice Allan Fitzgerald, who featured in a previous posting which can be found here. The original dispute was about the affairs of A, Mr Fitzgerald’s aunt. A’s niece, C, was appointed as A’s deputy in May 2013. Mr Fitzgerald had objected to this. In fact Mr Fitzgerald objected […]
Comment – This is another sad case involving an attorney who seemed to be looking out for his own interests rather than Alma’s. A panel Deputy is now in place and things are being put right. Be careful who you appoint as your attorney! Case Details An attorney who took almost £80,000 from his aunt’s […]
No, says the Court. Readers might recall that in March 2015, the Court of Protection had indicated that an application needed to be made to that Court every time the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority were requiring a trust to be put in place. That point was appealed. The outcome of the appeal is that a […]
Comment Here we see another sad family dispute. The practice point for us to take from this though is whether somebody who has been acting for one of the parties can switch to a different role and become an independent professional deputy. The answer, quite rightly, is no. There may be non-contentious situations where a […]
The subject of what family members should be paid for gratuitous care has been very topical recently. The most recent case gives some guidance. Comment This is another eminently sensible decision from Senior Judge Lush. Readers will be aware that the question of gratuitous care payments has been very much in the mind of the […]
In this case, there had been concerns about the conduct of one of the sons who was a benefits appointee. Comment This case is reasonably unusual because family circumstances have changed and the local authority, which is normally the Deputy of second last resort before a panel Deputy, did not want to step down. I […]
The subject of support payments has been very topical of late and we have seen a number of cases come through to the Court of Protection. This case is a little different because it involves attorneys. Comment There is extremely helpful guidance here from Senior Judge Lush, firstly on the question of mileage, secondly on […]
In this case an attorney who seems to have taken rather too fluid a view of the interaction between his finances and those of his incapacitated mother was removed by the Court of Protection. Comment Here again we see an attorney who seems to have confused the fact that he was receiving his mother’s money […]
A father and a friend who were deputies for a young lady were removed by the Court of Protection and replaced by a panel deputy. In considering their, rather late, response, Senior Judge Lush was able to see a very different side of things. Comment Here, Senior Judge Lush took time to look at all […]
In some ways this case is unremarkable but every instance of financial abuse is sad, particularly so when it is perpetrated by those a parent should be able to trust. I get a sense here that because Alan had gone into a home, his daughters no longer saw his assets as his. In this particular […]
An attorney who “didn’t have a clue” about her duties was removed as attorney but re-appointed as deputy in an inventive solution from the OPG, being blessed by Senior Judge Lush. This case related to AMH, a widow who lived in Greenwich and retired to Herne Bay. The case involved a very challenging family situation […]
Ten cases were heard before Justice Charles (Deputy president of the Court of Protection) on the same issue: Whether in non-contentious welfare cases where the proposed care arrangements amounted to a deprivation of liberty, should P always be a party? The decision was No. The Cases The ten cases sought Welfare Orders under Section 16 […]
Must a person be barred from acting as an attorney if he or she lives outside England & Wales? No says Senior Judge Lush in the case of DGP Law v DGHP (2015 EWCOP 58) Senior Judge Lush referred to ” …technological advances in communications, such as online banking, digital reporting, mobile phone, email and […]
A lady’s choice of executors was given great weight by the Court of Protection in a dispute over who should be appointed as her deputy. PAW has Alzheimer’s dementia. She was cared for at home by her husband but as her condition deteriorated he was not able to care for her and she entered a […]
Will this be the case when appointing successive Deputies? Hopefully, says the Court of Protection. It is hoped that when the time comes for successive Deputies to take over they will “faithfully fulfil their responses”, likening the position to that of godparents and English Ecclesiastical Law (Canon B23.2). This unusual case, specific to its facts, […]
A son who used more than £250,000 of his mother’s money for his own purposes has been removed as attorney. His “appalling” conduct and concern about assets he had bought in his name with his mother’s money being dissipated as part of his divorce led the Court of Protection to appoint deputies instead. This case […]
Criminal prosecutions of attorneys for financially abusing the donor of a Lasting Power of Attorney can be difficult to bring. This criminal appeal might make such prosecutions easier. The defendant in this case was the incapacitated person’s daughter. Readers might be interested to know that Senior Judge Lush keeps a list of the identities of […]
Summary Here, the Court of Protection was asked to decide how a millionaire’s estate should be divided between a daughter from a previous marriage and his second wife. We comment on the case at the bottom of this post. Pseudonym – Peter Jones Rather than the usual approach of using letters to refer to the […]
GM – The Sequel Regular readers of this column will remember the case of GM from April 2013. That case involved two property and affairs deputies who had made a rather spectacular range of gifts, quite a few of which were in favour of themselves and their own family and who had applied to the […]
A County Council and MS and RS This month’s first case looks at gifting, but in a different context from the cases we saw last month. The application was made by the local authority deputy for MS. MS had expressed a wish to donate £6,832, 10% of his recent inheritance, to his church, the Church […]
In the case of X, Y and Z (by their Children’s Guardian) and a case heard at the same time and concerning the same family, A Local Authority and SA involved a difficult decision about the way in which a personal injury award for a woman should be administered and the extent to which those […]
‘JS and KB, MP (Property and Affairs Deputy for DB)’ is a contrast from our usual fare of late. There have been (too) many cases where attorneys and deputies have been found not to have used money in an appropriate way. In this case, there was no attorney or deputy at the material time, but […]
There have been two recent cases in the Court of Protection involving gifting from personal injury awards. In the first case, X, Y and Z (by the children’s guardian, a local authority), at the Court of Protection hearing for financial issues joined with the family court which was dealing with the issue of where the […]
Court of Protection Appeals The case of TA v AA and Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council [2013] EWCA Civ 1661 provides useful clarification of the way in which appeals should be approached and a warning about the consequences if the procedure is not followed. The particular case concerned a decision on deprivation of liberty but the […]
Court of Protection in the news (again) The Court of Protection is rarely out of the news these days it seems. The latest coverage appeared in the Independent on Sunday. The subject in the limelight at the moment is a paper submitted by barristers and solicitors working practising Court of Protection work expressing concern about […]
