Deputyship solicitors

When a person loses mental capacity to make decisions for themselves and they do not have a power of attorney in place, then the Court of Protection will need to appoint a deputy to make decisions for that person.

A Lasting Power of Attorney is something that a person can put in place when they have mental capacity (the ability to make their own decisions) in order to appoint someone to help make decisions for them, particularly in the future if they are no longer able to do it for themselves.

A deputyship is awarded by the Court of Protection where someone applies to help make decisions for someone who is unable to make decisions for themselves. This may be due to something temporary, such as a coma, or long term, such as a serious brain injury.

It is possible for more than one deputy to be appointed to look after someone’s needs.

All deputies must have sight of – and agree to – all decisions in situations when it has been agreed that decisions must be made ‘jointly’.

In cases where decisions can be made ‘separately or together’ each deputy is empowered to make decisions alone.

We can offer support in the process of establishing deputies and deputyship decision arrangements.

This will depend on whether the individual has capacity to make a Will or not.  Just because a Deputy has been appointed to manage their financial affairs does not mean they will automatically also lack capacity to make a Will (testamentary capacity).  It is possible to lack capacity to manage your financial affairs but to have capacity to make or change your Will.

A formal assessment of capacity to make or change the Will would be required.  If that assessment confirms the individual has capacity to make / change a Will, they can do that for themselves in the same way any capacitated adult can.

If the capacity assessment confirms the individual lacks capacity to make / change their Will, an application to the Court of Protection would be required for a statutory Will.  The new Will could only then be made if approved by an Order of the Court.

It is possible to remove an existing deputee and replace them with someone else. There are many reasons why this may be appropriate but the main ones include a breakdown in the relationship between the existing deputy, the person they are representing or their close family circle, a breakdown between the different deputies if there are multiple deputies appointed, concerns about the suitability of the deputy to make the right decisions and finally the existing deputy stepping down because they are retiring / they are struggling with the responsibilities of being a deputy. 

If the person regains capacity then an application needs to be made to the Court of Protection for them to be able to go back to managing their own affairs themselves.