Covid-19: Court of Protection guidance on visiting P and hearings

The Court of Protection has issued two important pieces of guidance in the last two days, writes Jonathan Auburn.

On Tuesday 17 March 2020 Mr Justice Hayden, Vice President of the Court of Protection, issued guidance on visits to P. The guidance provides that "visits should only be made to P where that is assessed as absolutely necessary". Further, "Alternative arrangements should always be considered first, such as telephone FaceTime and Skype conferencing". "Visits to care home are to be strongly discouraged" [emphasis in original].

Yesterday, Wednesday 18 March 2020 Mr Justice Hayden issued wider advice. This includes that: 

• hearings of less than 2 hours will be by telephone;
• longer hearings will proceed unless the judge decides otherwise;
• all must consider other options, including Skype and telephone conferences;
• if directions hearings cannot be agreed then a hearing without attendance should be sought;

The guidance also deals with issues such as acceptance of electronic signatures, notification of P, service by email, scanned documents and electronic bundles, and capacity assessments undertaken via video.

Jonathan Auburn is a barrister at 11KBW. He can be contacted This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Go to the 11KBW Community Care blog.