Text:E90-14

Court User’s Group October meeting

The Court of protection users group met on 17 October 2018. The minutes can be found here. Of note:

• There has been an 8% increase in applications and a 10% decrease in disposals compared to the last 12 months.
• For urgent applications, a COP 9 can be submitted which will be dealt with by the Urgent Business Judge (UBJ) who will deal with it if it is truly urgent.
• Bundles must be removed from the Court after hearings, otherwise they are treated as abandoned and reported to the Information Commissioner.
• In order to comply with GDPR a new system for the appointment of ALRs has been in place since 28 August, whereby HMCTS go to the Law Society to approach an individual ALR for consent to disclose their details. [We note that there seem to be, at a minimum, teething problems with ALRs: we would be particularly interested in any positive practice experiences that can be shared by those solicitors who have been appointed ALRs so that, if possible, these teething problems can be sorted out].
• If an ALR is requested or appropriate, the case is referred to the Urgent Business Judge (UBJ) and if it is agreed, an ALR is identified and approached. The ALR then has 24 hours to respond. Concern was raised that since the end of August only 7 ALRs have been appointed.
• Section 16 and 21A applications should be issued in regional hubs. All property and affairs cases should be issued in First Avenue House.

The new President of the Court of Protection is likely to make a decision about whether counsel should be robed in public hearings before tier 3 judges (i.e. High Court judges) in the New Year. He has indicated that he is likely to take the view that counsel should be robed. We thought it would be interesting to obtain the views of practitioners on this topic and so Katie Scott is collating responses on this topic, so please send any comments or views to ks@39essex.com