Giles Eyre & Dr Linda Monaci discuss vulnerable individuals & the Mental Capacity Act 2005
The issue of the mental capacity of a claimant during or at the conclusion of injury litigation may arise from a condition pre-dating and independent of the accident or event that is the subject of the claim, or the condition may be the result of the accident or event; or, as in this paper, a combination of both.
Section 2 of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA 2005) provides that ‘a person lacks capacity in relation to a matter if at the material time he is unable to make a decision for himself in relation to the matter because of an impairment of, or a disturbance in the functioning of, the mind or brain.’ The burden of proving lack of capacity is on the person asserting such lack. Section 1 of MCA 2005 provides that ‘(3) A person is not to be treated as unable to make a decision unless all practicable steps to help him to do so
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