Clarke and Son News

Clarke & Son LLP recently held a networking event for like-minded professionals at their offices in Winchester Road. Partners Bhupendra Sankhla and Nia Wharry gave short presentations on Collaborative Law and Lasting Powers of Attorney respectively and the small but lively group of IFAs, bankers and accountants all felt the event was a great success.

Nia Wharry said of the event,

“We thought it a good idea to get to know other local professionals and give them some idea of what we could offer their clients. I think the event proved worthwhile in that it helped to build relationships to the benefit of all our businesses.  We thought the event such a success that we hope to host another in the near future.”

For information on Collaborative Law, please email Bhupendra Sankhla. For information on Lasting Powers of Attorney, please email Nia Wharry. You can contact Bhupendra or Nia on Tel: 01256 320 555.

Nia Wharry of Clarke & Son LLP with Champagne Winner Mike Wroe of St James’s Place Wealth Management at the networking event on 2nd June 2010.

Experienced Wills & Probate Solicitor, Nia Wharry, has recently been made Partner at Basingstoke Law Firm, Clarke & Son LLP.  After just one year as Head of the Wills & Probate Deparment, Nia has made her mark on the long-established firm and is delighted with her promotion,

“Clarke & Son LLP is a fantastically friendly place to work and I have received a warm welcome from colleagues and clients alike.  I have enjoyed developing the Wills and Estate Planning Department and the services we offer and advising the people of Basingstoke and the surrounding community on various issues which affect us all from time to time.”

A member of the Society of Trust & Estate Practitioners, Solicitors for the Elderly and the Probate Section of the Law Society, Nia specialises in all aspects of private client work, including the preparation of Wills; administration of estates and intestacies; inheritance tax planning; elderly client advice and care fee planning; Lasting Powers of Attorney; general powers and registration of Enduring Powers of Attorney; Court of Protection applications including Statutory Will applications etc.

 For further information on any of these matters, contact Nia Wharry on Tel: 01256 320 555

Recently the One Show on the BBC broadcasted a feature focusing on the importance of putting in place a Lasting Power of Attorney.  They interviewed one viewer who had been battling to get control of her family’s finances after her husband had been left in a coma for three years following an accident. Her husband had not drawn up a Lasting Power of Attorney, so no one else was appointed to deal with his affairs in the event that he became either mentally or physically incapable of doing so.  As a result, his wife had to apply to the Court of Protection each time she wanted to access her husband’s accounts incurring time delays and charges.

 If you are worried about what may happen to your loved ones should you become mentally or physically incapable during your lifetime and would like further information on a Lasting Power of Attorney, please contact Nia Wharry Tel: 01256 320 555.

Recent weeks have seen prominent and harsh criticism in the media of the Court of Protection and Public Guardian.  These two bodies are responsible fro the property and affairs of some of the most vulnerable people in society, those who lack capacity to deal with these matters themselves.  They therefore have a vital function to perform and it is of the utmost concern to a civilised society that these public bodies do not appear insensitive, secretive, bureaucratic and inefficient.

Clarke & Son LLP, a member of Solicititors for the Elderly (SFE), is one of its thousand plus members who deal with this area of law on a daily basis.  SFE share the concerns and frustrations of their clients and often act in their own right as deputies for adults and children who lack capacity.

The legal and administrative system provided by the Mental Capacity Act 2005 is not a perfect one by any means.  But it rests on a powerful premise.  No one person has the right to take the property of another person who lacks capacity unless either that person has autohorised this in advance, through a lasting power of attorney or the Court of Protection has given that authority.  Not everyone has had the foresight or desire to plan ahead with a lasting power of attorney, especially as the new forms require a degree of determination to complete.  The court must also deal with the property of children who will lack capacity, often where there have been compensaton awards for catastrophic injuries.  It deals with over 6,000 applications each year and it cannot just give authority every time someone asks for it.  There has to be a procedure that shows that a person lacks capacity and that the deputy who is given authority is the right person to take on a great responsibility and that the interests of the person who cannot speak for himself are protected.

There is of course a difficult balancing act for any public body to perform.  If it is too restrictive in what it allows, it is condemned for being paternalistic and bureaucratic; if it gives away authority without proper checks, it is condemned for being heartless.  In reality it must also contend with limited resources which must be raised through fees and charges.  These fees are significantly lower than they were in the past, and in the vast majority of cases the annual supervision fee charged by the Public Guardian is £175.

Difficult cases make for alarming headlines.  But in the great majority of cases, the Court of Protection appoints deuputies as a matter of course and close relatives are given a wide ranging authority to administer considerable assets.  This usually extends to selling a person’s property and deciding where and how to invest money.  The only safeguards are an insurance policy and completion of a short annual report to the Public Guardian.  Most cases are dealt with efficiently, through a simple paper-based procedure.  And most cases do work reasonably well in practice.

 This success - which is at odds with media criticism - avoids wider concerns that a system which is too causal in its approach allows the unscrupulous and the incompetent to cause a great deal of damage before it can be discovered.  The Public Guardian is a separate body from the Court which has very limited powers of investigation and enforcement.

 The Court of Protection meanwhile is a judicial body which is bound by rules which belong to a world where wealthy protagonists can litigate with no regard to how long they take or what costs they incur.  Those cases that do go wrong, or where there are objections and different points of view in the family, are subject to a very different procedure that really is daunting as well as expensive.  Cases move into a labyrinthine world involving forms and procedures that are daunting for lawyers, let alone concerned realtives.  Cases frequently involve several opposing parties, solicitors, barristers, trial bundles and days in court where the costs are so great that there is a real disincentive to use the Court of Protection except as a last resort.

These are issues that the Court are aware of and members of Solicitors for the Elderly are engaged with both bodies, bringing constructive criticism to bear where it is helpful, and trying to share the concerns of its members and the wider client case they represent in providing better protection for those who cannot by definition protect themselves.

Nia Wharry, Head of Wills & Probate at Clarke & Son and a member of Solicitors for the Elderly said:

“The Court of Protection plays a central role in protecting the vulnerable from financial abuse.  There clearly have been teething problems but Solicitors for the Elderly togenter with other professional bodies have been sharing their concerns and working to help resolve issues.”

For more information on the Court of Protection or advice on Powers of Attorney, contact Nia Wharry on Tel: 01256 320555.

For further information about Solicitors for the Elderly, please visit http://www.solicitorsfortheelderly.com/public/

As from 1st October 2009, the Office of the Public Guardian have issued a new format for the Lasting Power of Attorney Forms. These new forms will not invalidate existing Lasting or Enduring Powers of Attorney and are much improved in their new more concise and logically compiled format.

For more information on Powers of Attorney, please contact Nia Wharry on Tel: 01256 320 555.

In April 2009, great-grandmother Betty Figg was snatched by social workers against the wishes of her daughter, her former carer. Social workers arrived with police and a battering ram to remove the 86-year-old woman suffering from dementia from her daughter’s house. The media quickly spread pictures and video footage of Betty being taken from the house in her wheelchair with a towel thrown over her head.

It seems social services did not agree with Betty’s daughter that it was in Betty’s best interests to be cared by her daughter in a specially converted room, in her daughter’s home.

Could this happen to a family in Basingstoke?

There is a way that it can be avoided; by giving a health and welfare lasting power of attorney to a family member, social services are prevented from making care decisions. Without this document, social services can make decisions on behalf a vulnerable person, if they think they lack mental capacity and believe it is in their best interests. They do not have to follow what the family want and cannot be liable for their decisions.

Nia Wharry, of Clarke & Son solicitors, a member Solicitors for the Elderly, is encouraging all older people to plan ahead and make a health and welfare lasting power of attorney.

‘It is an important document and sensible to get advice about the choices you have. What happened to Mrs Figg may never happen to you, but if it does, you and your family will be glad you made the power.’

For further information on Health & Welfare Lasting Power of Attorneys, contact Nia Wharry on Tel: 01256 320 555.