Sophy Miles - Healthcare and Serious Medical Treatment
Year of Call: 2015 (26 years experience as a specialist Mental Health and COP solicitor)
Chambers and Partners 2022, Band 2 (Court of Protection); Legal 500 2023, Tier 3 (Court of Protection and Community Care)
Sophy was a highly regarded specialist Court of Protection solicitor before she came to the Bar in 2015. She was the solicitor in the seminal cases of Hillingdon LBC v Neary [2011] EWHC 3522 (Fam) (importance of bringing serious residence disputes to court for resolution) and JE v DE [2007] 2 FLR 1150 (pre-Cheshire West definition of deprivation of liberty). She was appointed as a Deputy District Judge of the Court of Protection in 2020, is a trained mediator and was a member of the Court of Protection Mediation Pilot Scheme. She was junior counsel in N v ACCG [2017] UKSC 22 and in Welsh Ministers v PJ [2018] UKSC 66 in both cases led by Aswini Weereratne QC. Other reported cases include P v A Local Authority [2015] EWCOP 89, Re D (A Young Man) [2020] EWCOP1.
Sophy has acted for family members and for health bodies in serious medical treatment cases, including E (A Child) [2018] EWCA Civ 550 (led by the late Stephen Knafler QC). More recently she acted for a mental health Trust in an application concerning 15 year old with an eating disorder who required emergency clinically assisted nutrition and hydration, and for the family of a young man of 23 in a minimally conscious state (London North West University Heathcare Trust v M,A,H and T [2022] EWCOP 13).
Sophy has also appeared in many welfare cases where the court has had to adjudicate on capacity and best interests in relation to treatment issues such as vaccinations against Covid-19. Sophy brings depth in her knowledge of the Mental Health Act and its interface with the Mental Capacity Act as a framework for treatment decisions. She attaches great importance to efficiency and adhering to (often short) deadlines.
She contributed to Lewis and Buchan; “Clinical Negligence- A Practical Guide”, Bloomsbury Professional Publications, September 2019, is one of the co-authors of “Court of Protection Handbook: A User. Guide”, LAG 2021.
Read Sophy's full profile here.
