Court of Protection

Overview

The Court of Protection team in chambers has a wide range of experts who specialise in the law relating to mental capacity, mental health, adult social care and community care.

Barristers within the team have experience before the Court of Protection, the Family Division of the High Court, the Administrative Court and appellate jurisdictions.

Our team can provide legal advice and representation to local authorities, NHS bodies, protected parties through their litigation friends and private individuals.

We are consistently recommended in the legal directories as a set of chambers, with the most recent edition of the Legal 500 commenting that we are ‘an excellent set of chambers with an incredible wealth of barristers, capable of anything thrown its way.’ (Legal 500, 2022).

Given the depth of experience within the team across personal injury, medical law and children law, our barristers are particularly well-equipped to deal with cases in which jurisdictions overlap. The team is one of five Chambers to service the work of the London Borough Legal Alliance for adult social care and Court of Protection work.

Areas of Expertise

• Applications brought under the Mental Health Act 1983
• Best interest disputes involving welfare and property decisions
• Capacity disputes
• Challenges to deprivation of liberty safeguards authorisations
• Contested deputyship applications
• Cases involving 16 and 17 year olds
• Deprivation of liberty applications
• Emergency applications and injunctions
• Serious medical treatment applications
• Ordinary residence disputes

Notable Cases

• A CCG v AF [2020] EWCOP 16
  Best interests dispute in respect of a man who suffered a stroke to continue to receive clinically assisted nutrition and hydration.
• Re J (a child) [2020] EWHC 2395
  Deprivation of liberty application in respect of a 16-year-old in an unregulated placement.
• Re HS [2020] Best interests application for approval of a course of IVF for a protected Chinese national.
• Re M [2018] EWCOP 4
  Appeal in respect of disclosure in consecutive Children Act 1989 and Mental Capacity Act 2005 proceedings.