Our Court of Protection and Mental Health team offers depth and breadth of expertise in all areas of mental capacity and mental health law. This includes medical treatment, welfare, and property and affairs matters in the Court of Protection, the full range of proceedings under the Mental Health Act 1983, and associated public law and civil litigation.
What the directories say
We are ranked in Band 2 of Chambers and Partners' 2025 Court of Protection: Health and Welfare rankings, which says, 'Doughty Street Chambers is highly regarded for its "very broad range of expertise" in health and welfare matters, and houses a strong bench of barristers experienced in the handling of cases affecting incapacitated adults and children. Members are regularly instructed in deprivation of liberty and serious medical treatment cases, as well as disputes concerning capacity to consent to sexual relations and forced marriages. The set's expertise in this area is complemented by its recognised strengths in human rights, housing and community care law, and its barristers frequently appear in landmark cases before the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal.' — Chambers and Partners, 2025
We are ranked in Band 2 of Legal 500’s 2025 Court of Protection rankings, which says, “Doughty Street Chambers is ‘a very strong chambers, with a breadth of practice areas and leading practitioners in the Court of Protection field’.“ — Legal 500, 2025
What kind of cases do we act in?
The team covers the full breadth of Court of Protection and inherent jurisdiction work and acts for the full range of parties, including health bodies, local authorities, relatives, and P via a litigation friend, including the Official Solicitor. We have Court of Protection counsel in all call bands, and team members travel the breadth of England and Wales.
Much of our work involves complex capacity and best interests issues, including sexual relations, social media, forensic risk, hoarding, radicalisation, and fluctuating capacity. In medical treatment cases, our team acts for the full range of parties, including in urgent applications.
We act in cases in the Family Division, including forced marriages, FGM cases, deprivation of liberty of children, and declaration of death cases. We have particular expertise in coercive and controlling behaviour cases in the inherent jurisdiction. We provide advice on contempt of court and act for all parties in applications for committal.
Team members are regularly instructed in deprivation of liberty challenges under section 21A of the Mental Capacity Act 2005. The team is known for its expertise on the interface between the Mental Health Act (MHA) and the Mental Capacity Act (MCA), and the law on deprivations of liberty in healthcare, social care, and educational contexts.
Many of our team are known for their expertise in “complex” learning disability and autism cases, in which people have been detained in hospital for long periods of time before being discharged into community settings that meet their needs. Our team regularly act in high-profile Human Rights Act and negligence claims touching on mental health, disability, and neurodiversity.
Members also act in contentious property and affairs cases. Our team is especially well-placed to advise professional deputies who manage large personal injury awards on behalf of Ps with high care and support needs. For example, members can advise when public bodies should fund P’s care instead of P paying privately, how deputies should respond when P wishes to act contrary to their health and welfare interests, and the steps to take when financial coercion or control is at play. Drawing on Chambers’ crime and housing teams, we can assist if P’s dysregulation has led to involvement in the criminal justice system or is jeopardising their tenancy or proprietary interests. The team is fully conversant in proceedings involving the Office of the Public Guardian, cross-jurisdictional aspects, and minor Ps and has significant experience in cases involving capacity to gift, testamentary capacity, statutory wills, and contested Lasting Powers of Attorney.
Team members advise on human rights claims involving historic and current breaches of Convention rights in hospitals, care homes, schools, and the community. We are actively involved in training and the development of international human rights law in this area, including on the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and in taking cases to Strasbourg under the European Convention on Human Rights. Team members are often instructed by bodies such as Liberty, Justice, Mind, and the Equality and Human Rights Commission, which act as third-party interveners in cases raising important issues of law and practice.
We provide skilled advice and representation in the Upper Tribunal, the First-tier Tribunal (Mental Health), and nearest relative applications in the County Court, as well as in broader public law issues arising from use of the Mental Health Act.
Who do we act for?
Team members are instructed by NHS commissioners and providers, local authorities, families, and P via a range of litigation friends, including the Official Solicitor. Our approach is proactive, personal, and solution-focused in this sensitive and complex area of practice.
The bigger picture
Several members of the team are part-time Judges in the Court of Protection and the First-tier Tribunal (Mental Health). Members of the team write and speak extensively in this area and have authored well-regarded practitioners’ texts: Butterworth’s New Law Guide to the Mental Capacity Act 2005, of which Aswini Weereratne KC, Ulele Burnham and Alison Seaman are co-authors; LAG’s Court of Protection Handbook and Mental Health Tribunals Handbook, co-authored by Sophy Miles; and the first edition of the Court of Protection Dictionary, co-authored by Gemma Daly.
The team has a long history of engagement in mental health law and policy: Aswini Weereratne KC chaired the topic group considering the MHA/MCA interface for the ongoing Independent Review of the Mental Health Act; Sophy Miles was a member of the topic group considering MHA detention criteria; and Oliver Lewis has been working with NGOs to get autistic people and those with learning disabilities out of mental health detention and into the community.
International and academic links
Doughty Street has a long and established relationship with several international NGOs, including Validity, an NGO in Budapest that litigates in support of people with psychosocial disabilities and intellectual disabilities around the world where Oliver Lewis was the Executive Director before returning to the Bar.
The team is also proud to have as associate tenants: Emeritus Professor Jill Peay of the London School of Economics, who is a specialist on mentally disordered offenders; retired barrister Jeannie Mackie, who has extensive experience in fitness-to-plead cases and has contributed to psychiatric writing on that topic; and Anselm Eldergill, who practised as a mental health solicitor for 25 years before becoming a Judge of the Court of Protection, a position he held until 2024.
Training
Members of the team often provide training on all areas of mental capacity and mental health law to lawyers, clinicians, and social workers. The team also provides regular webinars, including an annual Court of Protection caselaw update.
To discuss specific training requirements, please contact our practice manager Emily Norman on 020 7400 8897. "Emily Norman is a fantastic clerk who goes above and beyond."—Chambers and Partners, 2023.
