The Eric Whitehead Partnership

On Wednesday 1 July 2015, new Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) forms were made available by the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG). The OPG has advised that the new forms for both Property and Financial Affairs LPAs and Health and Welfare LPAs will be simpler and clearer and therefore faster to complete. Under the new regime, the requirement for a second Certificate Provider has been removed. However, other safeguards remain the same, such as the need for an independent witness or witnesses and someone certifying that the Donor has capacity. The OPG will be accepting both the old and new versions of LPA forms for the next six months. From Wednesday 1 July 2015 until Friday 1 January 2016, a Donor can use either the old or new versions of the forms to create and register an LPA. If an old LPA...

On 22nd April, a new Court dealing with family cases came into operation in England and Wales. Created by the Crime and Courts Act 2013, the single Family Court replaces the old system which involved family cases being dealt with by three separate Courts. There are over 250,000 new family cases each year which deal with issues such as divorce, domestic violence and adoption.  In 2011, a review found that care and supervision cases were taking an average of one year to be dealt with, causing the futures of vulnerable children to be undermined. Under the new system, care cases will normally be dealt with within six months. In addition, there are changes to the way in which children are dealt with in family cases, with terms such as “residence” and “contact” being abolished, as such...