Once a person lacks capacity to make decisions about their Personal Welfare and Property & Affairs, any decisions relating to this must be made in their best interests using the principles of the Mental Capacity Act 2005.
Did you know that once a person lacks capacity, families are not able to assist them with their finances in an official capacity unless they have an LPA for finances or they have a Deputyship order for the person’s Property and Affairs? This means if the loved one who lacks capacity is unable to go to the bank or access online banking, no one else is permitted to do this for them unless they have the legal authority to do so.
In addition, decisions about health and welfare can be made about a person who lacks capacity only if it is in the person’s best interests. This can be made difficult if there is a difference of opinion as to what is in the person’s best interests. This means that if the Health or Local Authority decides it is in your loved one’s best interests to be elsewhere, they may act as the main decision maker due to their professional recommendation /involvement. This may be at odds with the family’s views. Disputes about a person’s care and welfare decisions can only be resolved through the Court of Protection.
At Makka Solicitors Ltd, we have the expertise of dealing with the Court of Protection and are highly experienced in representing clients in court hearings within the Court of Protection. Our team member dealing with Court of Protection matters has Higher Rights of Audience (Civil proceedings) and appears regularly in the Court of Protection as a solicitor-advocate.
We charge a fixed rate for these applications at £1,200 plus VAT for Deputyship of Property and Affairs applications which includes preparing the court paperwork, issuing the application, serving notifications to 3 different interested parties and serving upon the person to whom the application relates personally. There are additional disbursements that would need to be paid such as Court Application fee at £371 for each application and Land Registry Office Copy Entries at £3.90 each property search.
Any additional costs related to Deputyship such as court hearings, if listed or if the matters are contested are charged at standard hourly charges for work conducted on an hourly basis. We work hard to ensure that an estimate is provided at the onset and any charges beyond our original estimate are discussed with you at an earlier stage.
Our standard hourly rates for solicitors are as follows:
| Solicitor Grade | Hourly Rates |
| A – Solicitors and legal executives with over 8 years’ experience | £280.00 |
| B – Solicitors and legal executives with over 4 years’ experience | £230.00 |
| C- Other solicitors or legal executives and fee earners with 1 to 4 years’ experience | £180.00 |
| D – Trainee solicitors, paralegals and other fee earners | £120.00 |