Rules for Court of Protection set for shake-up

The way the Court of Protection operates is to be reviewed following complaints about its practice and procedure and because of the higher than expected caseload it has had to deal with, the President of the Family Division has announced.

Sir Mark Potter said an ad-hoc committee – chaired jointly by Mr Justice Charles and Mrs Justice Proudman – would review the Court of Protection Rules 2007 and the practice directions and forms accompanying the rules.

Membership of the committee will be drawn from the legal profession and other users of the court. Introduced under the Mental Capacity Act 2005, the court is a  specialist court with jurisdiction to make decisions and appoint someone to make decisions on behalf of people who lack capacity to make decisions for themselves.

Sir Mark said: “The Court of Protection has faced a number of difficulties in its first two years and court users have complained that court procedure is too formal, particularly in relation to straightforward financial matters which are not contentious. The court has also received applications far in excess of predicted volumes, which has meant that the allocation of four full-time judges has not been sufficient to keep up with demand.”

The committee has been tasked with making the court's rules clearer and simpler, for both lay and professional users.