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Court of Protection

including wills and probate
XFool
The full Lemon
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Court of Protection

#111896

Postby XFool » January 19th, 2018, 2:00 pm

A tricky one. I am simply trying to get a handle on this.

Does anyone have any experience/knowledge of professional deputyship via The Court of Protection?

A party I know is under such an arrangement and is 'not happy', for a variety of reasons. Now I wish to emphasise that this does not necessarily mean there is any actual reason for complaint.

One perceived 'problem' is the professional fees charged. Not having any experience of knowledge of this I, if asked, would have hazarded an uninformed guess of ... a few thousand a year? They appear to be more like a couple of ten thousand a year - for a 'demanding' client.

They feel 'ripped off', don't 'trust' the solicitor and want to get rid of them. But to me that only means another solicitor. Why would they be cheaper or better? What if they were worse? A 'panel' solicitor is claimed to likely 'cost more'. The client would prefer 'Lasting Power of Attorney' (and no professional fees) but the family are out of the picture.

I realise this is all rather vague but I can't myself think of an obvious 'solution' and would just like to hear comments of any parallel experiences.

TIA

BarrenFluffit
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Re: Court of Protection

#112615

Postby BarrenFluffit » January 22nd, 2018, 4:30 pm

To make a power of attorney the person has to have "capacity"; this is the keystone of these arrangements and is more subtle that might be intuitively apparent.

Powers of attorney and deputyships are basically alternatives, with deputyship being awarded by the court of protection where capacity is insufficient. It's done quite carefully and cautiously, checking that the arrangement is essential and proportionate. Certainly with a formality and rigour that is quite different to usual family interactions. Changing the arrangements would probably have to go via the court.

The max fee levels of panel solicitors are set centrally;
https://www.judiciary.gov.uk/wp-content ... -01-17.pdf

No personal experience I'm afraid. In some circumstances local authorities will operate Deputyships.

XFool
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Re: Court of Protection

#113301

Postby XFool » January 25th, 2018, 1:13 pm

Thank you for the rely and information, BarrenFluffit.

BarrenFluffit wrote:To make a power of attorney the person has to have "capacity"; this is the keystone of these arrangements and is more subtle that might be intuitively apparent.

Powers of attorney and deputyships are basically alternatives, with deputyship being awarded by the court of protection where capacity is insufficient. It's done quite carefully and cautiously, checking that the arrangement is essential and proportionate. Certainly with a formality and rigour that is quite different to usual family interactions. Changing the arrangements would probably have to go via the court.

I have not the slightest reason to suppose all this has not been properly done and was necessary, indeed I agreed and cooperated with it. There seemed no realistically available alternative.

At first glance the panel solicitor fees for deputyship seem much more in line with what I would have expected and much lower than purported "fees". However I am not really in the picture so it makes it difficult to assess the situation. But the figures help by providing some kind of benchmark.


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