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New Court of Protection Rules 2017 now in force

The Court of Protection Rules 2017 come into force today, 1 December 2017, 10 years after the alleged "secret court" first opened its doors.

The 2017 Rules will revoke the 2007 Court of Protection Rules and are pitched as a “consolidated set of rules governing practice and procedure in the Court of Protection”.

Said to be long overdue, the format of the new Rules has been substantially updated and will now mirror the format of the Civil Procedure Rules, Family Procedure Rules and Criminal Procedure Rules. Amongst other things, the 2017 Rules will implement rules that have been developed through the Case Management Pilot which ended this year, including allocation of cases to case management pathways.

The amendments appear to be largely in relation to layout, however, some key changes include:

  • “Rule 3A representatives” will now be referred to as “Rule 1.2 representatives”
  • Practice Direction 9E of the 2007 Rules, which relates to serious medical treatment, will not be replaced by the new Rules.
  • Rules relating to contempt of court have been replaced by fuller freestanding rules.

The 2017 Rules can be accessed by clicking here.

It should be noted that any applications made to the Court of Protection under the 2007 Rules and received after 1 December 2017 will be returned, although an application made using the old forms will be accepted up to 12 January 2018.

If you require any further information on the above, please contact Alexia Dawson.

Please note that this briefing is designed to be informative, not advisory and represents our understanding of English law and practice as at the date indicated. We would always recommend that you should seek specific guidance on any particular legal issue.

This page may contain links that direct you to third party websites. We have no control over and are not responsible for the content, use by you or availability of those third party websites, for any products or services you buy through those sites or for the treatment of any personal information you provide to the third party.

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