We have become aware that the tribunal office have started ‘appointing’ reps under R 11(7) a without obtaining a capacity assessment . This is not within the rules as they do not have evidence on capacity or that the patient wants a rep. I expect they are doing this to try to prevent the number of clients getting to a tribunal with no rep and this causing an adjournment. Has anyone else noticed this? Any views?
I haven’t noticed any R11 appointments without the checkbox of “I want a legal representative appointed for me” ticked on the MHT App/Referral.
Could it be that Trust policy is to tick that box unless the patient already has a legal rep on file? Hospitals get annoyed with adjournments too.
Yes, especially with CTO patients and then I find out that they haven been asked if they want a paper review or actually want a tribunal. The majority don’t want to engage and definitely don’t want a visit or to sign the LA form. Very frustrating