Official Solicitor clarifies remarks on reaching limit of resources for CoP cases

The Official Solicitor has sought to “correct some misconceptions” and clarify what he meant when he wrote to the President of the Court of Protection last December to say that he had reached the limit of his resources with regard to welfare cases.

In a note on acceptance of appointments as litigation friend in CoP healthcare and welfare cases – published on the Ministry of Justice website – the Official Solicitor said he “did not mean by this that he had run out of money, but rather that his available staff, (after movement of staff to this area of work and recruitment to the full extent which was possible), to manage this class of case were unable to take on any more of these cases”.

The effect of this development is that that the Official Solicitor is unable to accept invitations to act in any except the most urgent cases, namely serious medical treatment cases and section 21A appeals, other than those brought by the relevant person's representative.

The note adds that Section 21A appeals “may nevertheless be subject to a delay in acceptance until a case manager becomes available to whom the case may be allocated”.

All other cases, once the Official Solicitor’s longstanding acceptance criteria are met, will be placed on a waiting list.

“These cases will be accepted, when a case manager becomes available, in chronological order starting with the earliest placed on the list, unless exceptional priority is given due to this office considering the case to be very urgent or should otherwise be expedited,” the note said.

It also called on the courts, in the event that they are of the view that a case should be considered as most urgent, or should be expedited for other reasons, to inform the senior lawyers in the Official Solicitor’s CoP Healthcare and Welfare teams, of the court’s reasons. Consideration will be given on individual merit, the Official Solicitor said.

“If at any time another litigation friend is appointed in this case before the Official Solicitor is in a position to accept the invitation the parties are asked to notify him as soon as possible, so that the file may be closed and the case removed from the waiting list,” the note added.

The Official Solicitor also said:

• Pre-acceptance: In order to avoid any unnecessary delay, he will at this stage make his initial enquiries to establish whether or not the case is one where his acceptance criteria are met, and, in principle, he would be willing to act. In order to enable those enquiries to be made the court may be invited to make an order for disclosure of financial information relating to P, the protected party or child.
• Acceptance: When the Official Solicitor is able to accept the case, the applicant will be contacted in order to establish whether or not P, the protected party or child remains a party, and whether the case remains a last resort case.

The note can be downloaded here.