Making decisions : helping people who have difficulty deciding for themselves : a guide for legal practitioners.

  • Great Britain. Lord Chancellor's Department.
Date:
2003
Catalogue details

Licence: Open Government Licence

Credit: Making decisions : helping people who have difficulty deciding for themselves : a guide for legal practitioners. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    11/40 (page 9)
    In general, determining someone’s best interests involves trying to find out what is most important to the person concerned, and what they would have wanted, rather than what would make life easier for those involved in their care (see Hints for determining best interests on page 23). The recommendations made by the Law Commission (Mental Incapacity (Law Com 231, 1995)) on the factors to be considered in order to determine a person’s best interests have been adopted by the courts in a number of rulings (see page 27). There are special rules governing financial and healthcare decisions, and the person may have made arrangements for some decisions in advance. For example, financial decisions can only be made on a person’s behalf if he or she has given someone specific legal authority to do so under an Enduring Power of Attorney or similar arrangement (see page 12). What authority do lawyers have to act on behalf of people who do not have capacity? Lawyers can only act on a client’s instructions. If the client lacks the Capacity to give instructions (or loses capacity while a lawyer is doing work on their behalf) the lawyer must cease to act unless arrangements have been put in place authorising the lawyer to continue to act. A lawyer may have authority to act on behalf of a person without capacity if one of the following measures has been taken: