St John’s Chambers is a ‘go-to‘ set for Court of Protection work on the Western Circuit, with several members regularly receiving instructions from family members, the Official Solicitor, and local authorities, among others.”

The Legal 500 2024, Court of Protection and Community Care

St John’s Chambers experienced Court of Protection team advise on all aspects of health and welfare matters involving individuals lacking in capacity.

Areas of expertise:

  • Section 21A applications challenging authorisations of deprivation of liberty in a care home or hospital under the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DOLS).
  • Emergency applications including changes to care provision on behalf of vulnerable adults.
  • Decisions about whether it is in ’P’s  best interests to live in a family home or residential care or other care setting, disputes over arrangements for contact with family members, decisions on complex/interventionist care packages involving deprivation or restriction of liberty.
  • Decisions as to whether ‘P’ has capacity to marry or capacity to enter into sexual relations.
  • Medical treatment application.
  • Advising local authorities on safeguarding duties.
  • Proceedings concerning 16 and 17 year olds, and the overlapping jurisdictions of the Court of Protection and Children Act 1989.

Mediation

As the number of cases being dealt with by way of mediation increases, our mediation team are on hand to help, be it by providing the advocates, mediators or both. Our facilities are specifically designed to meet with client’s needs for a mediation venue. Read more.

Health & Welfare Team

Christopher Sharp QC

Christopher Sharp KC

  • Call: 1975
  • Silk: 1999

Christopher’s areas of work in catastrophic injury, including brain injury, his experience in complex public law children’s cases involving those with learning and other cognitive disabilities, and his work in financial remedies where he is sometimes instructed by...

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alex-troup

Alex Troup KC

  • Call: 1998
  • Silk: 2023

Alex has been described by peers as an exceptional chancery barrister who is adept at handling Court of Protection work. He has been instructed in a wide variety of Court of Protection cases, for the most part involving...

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Lucy Reed KC

  • Call: 2002
  • Silk: 2023

Lucy is a family law specialist and has practised in family law throughout her professional career. Her practice now spans all areas of family law with a particular emphasis on children work. In addition to her children practice Lucy is...

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Sarah Philimore

Sarah Phillimore

  • Call: 1994

Sarah first developed an interest in Court of Protection work in 2014 when representing a foster carer in a case where care proceedings overlapped with consideration of ‘best interests’ of a protected party. She has continued to develop...

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Judi Evans

  • Call: 1996

Judi advises and represents local authorities, family members and the subject person on all matters including DOLS both in the County and the High Court in Court of Protection matters.

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Abigail Bond

Abigail Bond

  • Call: 1999

Abigail has an expanding Court of Protection practice in which she represents parties in health and welfare cases and into which she transfers some of the skills and experience she has acquired in representing learning disabled adults in...

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Caroline Elford

Caroline Elford

  • Call: 2002

Caroline is a specialist family barrister who practises in all areas of family law with a strong emphasis on care proceedings. Caroline also accepts instructions in respect of court of protection matters. Her practice in this area has...

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Christopher Jones

Christopher Jones

  • Call: 2004

Christopher advises on and appears in cases involving the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and the property and affairs jurisdiction of the Court of Protection.  He has a particular expertise in statutory will applications (in 2012 he appeared in Re JC;...

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Jody Atkinson

  • Call: 2005

Combining both family and trusts/probate expertise, Jody is able to undertake the full range of Court of Protection work. Unlike many barristers he undertakes both ‘property and affairs’ and ‘welfare’ work. Recently he has represented family members in...

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Joss Knight

  • Call: 2014

Joss has particular experience in Court of Protection work and acts in both health and welfare and property and estates matters. Recent work includes: A claim to recover a six-figure sum appropriated by the defendant from an elderly relative...

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Annie Sampson

Annie Sampson

  • Call: 2015

Annie accepts instructions across the spectrum of Court of Protection matters, having gained experience during pupillage of matters arising in the context of both property and affairs and health and welfare.

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Directory Quotes

The team have been kept busy handling cases involving issues of mental capacity arising from diagnoses of dementia, health and welfare matters, and property and affairs disputes.”

Legal 500 2022, Court of Protection

Members at St John’s Chambers have worked on a number of interesting cases with patients affected by a range of issues, including vascular dementia, paranoid schizophrenia, and brain injuries caused either through personal injury or medical negligence.”

Legal 500 2021, Court of Protection

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