Court of Protection

If capacity is lost, and there is no Lasting Power of Attorney in place, then you will need to deal with the Court of Protection.    

The Court of Protection, established by section 45 of the Mental Capacity Act 2005, is a specialist court set up to deal with decision-making for adults (and children in a few cases) who may lack capacity to make decisions at the time they need to be made, typically in relation to their financial or welfare matters. The court makes decisions in the best interests of the person who lacks capacity to make the relevant decision. 

Dealing with the Court of Protection can be time consuming, costly and sometimes distressing for the family with each decision that needs to be made requiring the courts input.   

Planning in advance to put relevant LPAs in place whilst the individual has capacity, to cater for such eventualities should they arise will be a far better experience for the family, and more cost effective.