I have been reading some of the posts by the wonderful Court Protection transparency project recently, and noticed that there was a number of them exploring the issue of contempt of court within Court of Protection proceedings. One of them in particular, commented on what appeared to be a significant difference between the consequences forContinue reading “Disparity of consequences: What happens if you don’t comply with a Court of Protection order? Part 1”
Tag Archives: lawyers
What didn’t make the news – the trouble with legal aid right now
I find it very interesting that whilst the outage of Marks & Spencer’s website due to a data hack made front line news a number of times, there has been zero mention of a website outage that is actually far more important: the Legal Aid Agency’s online portal. Both happened at very similar times. NotContinue reading “What didn’t make the news – the trouble with legal aid right now”
Monsters lurking in the shadows: managing work place stress
I don’t think I have ever come across anyone working in either law or social care that hadn’t dealt with excessive work place stress at some point in their career. And, to a certain extent, stress, responsibility and pressure are an inherent and unavoidable part of these roles. How we deal with these things isContinue reading “Monsters lurking in the shadows: managing work place stress”
Wishes and feelings statements: getting to know P
I am often asked by family members how the Official Solicitor and the court can make decisions about P without knowing them. More often than not, this is followed by comments about how they know P best so they should be able to make all of P’s decisions. That follow up is problematic, for aContinue reading “Wishes and feelings statements: getting to know P”
Making the public body’s point for them: what not to do as a family member in the Court of Protection – part 2
In my last post, I gave an example of S and T. S is the subject of Court of Protection proceedings and T, her mother, does not agree with the decisions being made by professionals and wants S to move to a different placement. In that scenario, T’s behaviour gave the judge little option butContinue reading “Making the public body’s point for them: what not to do as a family member in the Court of Protection – part 2”
Miracle on the High Street
If you are a regular reader of this blog, you will know that as a child I was heavily influenced by the classic Christmas film Miracle on 34th Street. After spending a lot of time in my studies thinking I wanted to work for the Crown Prosecution Service, I accidentally found myself in an areaContinue reading “Miracle on the High Street”
Networking as an introvert
As I mentioned, I have recently changed roles (again). I’m still in private practice doing largely legal aid work so I wasn’t expecting much of the job to change, just the people and the work environment. My current firm is much more vocal about employees’ skills and successes, though. I’m also one of the firstContinue reading “Networking as an introvert”
Needles in haystacks: reviewing social care records
Today I want to talk about one of the more time-consuming aspects of my job: reviewing social care records. Or, more accurately, reviewing social care, care provider and healthcare records. You may or may not be aware, but it is standard practise in Court of Protection proceedings that the court will make disclosure orders requiringContinue reading “Needles in haystacks: reviewing social care records”
How the court decides on best interests: is that really that important though?
This is the third post in my series about how the Court of Protection makes best interests decisions. In practice, it’s a messy process, but I have broken it down into stages to make it easier to understand. Or that’s my intention anyway. If I’m only confusing you further, I do apologise! So we startedContinue reading “How the court decides on best interests: is that really that important though?”
Round table meetings: what to expect
Today I am going to talk about round table meetings during Court of Protection proceedings. Or RTMs as they are commonly referred to. They are a very valuable part of the process, but when invitations go out, I do get people calling me up to ask about what the meeting is for, and what they’llContinue reading “Round table meetings: what to expect”