In the summer of 2021, the Court of Protection introduced an online case management pilot scheme, designed to speed up the process of obtaining a Deputyship Order. A Deputyship Order is required when someone loses the capacity to make some or all decisions in relation to their property and financial affairs. If the protected party has not made a valid Lasting Power of Attorney prior to them losing capacity, an application will need to be made to the Court of Protection for the appointment of a Deputy to make those decisions.
Roythornes Solicitors applied to join the scheme and were one of the select number of firms to be given early access to the scheme in 2021. The future plan of The Court of Protection is to roll out the online case management pilot scheme Nationwide. The scheme is only available at present, to law firms.
Prior to 2021, all applications were made via postal submission. This meant that the applicant would typically be waiting around 6 to 12 months for the Court to issue the Deputyship Order. In turn, this left many vulnerable parties at risk as there was no one with authority to manage their property and financial affairs during this time. This could also leave people at risk of neglect and financial exploitation from the general public.
The main benefit of the online case management pilot scheme is the shortened time between the application being submitted and issued by the Court, to the Order being issued to the Deputy. The pilot scheme has also introduced an upfront notification process, which allows the protected party and at least 3 people with an interest in their affairs to be notified before the application is submitted. Previously, this would be done once the Court had issued the application which could often take several months due to the delays at the Court.
The online case management pilot scheme also had a widened benefit of reducing the number of paper applications being churned out by practices each year. The pilot system is a fully online system, reducing paper, printing, and postage costs.
All in all, a great step forward for modernising Court of Protection procedures and a welcomed change by the Roythornes Court of Protection team who are now able to provide quicker and more streamlined service to their Private Client services.
Roythornes have a specialist Court of Protection team who are happy to help deal with any queries that you may have in relation to the Court of Protection and Deputyship Applications. If you wish to enquire about making a Deputyship application, please contact a member of the team who will be on hand to assist.