denotes premium content | Jan 9 2009 Feature
posted 1 May 1998 in Volume 3 Issue 4
Solicitors for the Elderly
Readers of the Elderly Client Adviser
will have been aware over the last twelve months of the development of the Croup
known as Solicitors for the Elderly. Throughout the period from its foundation
the Group has met and has discussed critical issues affecting the older client.
The concern of the Group has been the issue of the quality of legal services
being offered to older people and the Group's principal aim has been to overcome
this.
The
Steering Committee of the SFE has a wide ranging membership representing not
only major London practices but also large provincial firms as well as the sole
practitioner, members of tile Bar and local government lawyers. They see SFE as
a new interest Group led by solicitors for practitioners committed to providing
and promoting comprehensive: high quality legal services for older people, their
families and carers. They recognise that access by ordinary citizens to robust
independent legal advice is threatened by upward pressures on overheads and the
profession's current preoccupation with corporate services, SEE aims to create
new ways of working which will empower clients and enable legal practitioners to
provide services which are affordable for them and financially viable. SFE
believes that the way forward lies in the establishment of regional groupings of
practitioners committed to raising the profile of SFE, ready to exploit the
practice development opportunities offered by new initiatives in the delivery of
primary care, forthcoming legislation on incapacity, and the likely
recommendations of the Royal Commission on long term care.
The key objectives for SFE are:
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to develop expertise
in areas of public and private law relevant to our clients' needs and
concerns and where there is at present a skills shortage. These
include. - consent, capacity and substituted decision making; - financial planning. including retirement and long term care, - housing and community care issues; - dealing with abuse |
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to continue to exercise the expertise which members of the Group will have in the more traditional legal services which older people require, e.g. Wills, Court of Protection, Enduring Powers attorney, property matters, litigation. |
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to promote best practice by means of high quality training, and the dissemination of information and know-how, to encourage benchmarking. |
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to facilitate networking and the building of constructive relationships with statutory voluntary agencies, charities, housing and social care providers, the financial services sector and other interested organisations or individuals. |
At the time the Group was launched, the Probate Practitioners' Section was also
launched by the Law Society. Solicitors for the Elderly, from the outset, sought to work with the Probate Practitioners' Section, believing that the profession should be united in its wish to improve the services offered to the older client. At a recent meeting of Solicitors for the Elderly it was agreed that SFE would provide the facilitator and leaders; for the workshop session at the Probate Practitioners' Conference on 7th July 1998 on Elderly Client Practice. At the time of this article the workshop leaders are being drawn together by Margaret Richards and will include:
-Linda Pratt, an experienced trainer and sole practitioner
Tish Hanifan, Barrister
Anne Edis, former private practitioner and Chairman of Solicitors for the Elderly, currently a solicitor in local government.
Furthermore, Solicitors for the Elderly will be fielding a number of candidates in the July election fur the Probate Practitioners' Section Executive Committee, including Danny Carter of Gepp and Sons in Chelsmford, Michael Collier of Cole and Cole in Oxford, Richard Smithies of Bearders in Brighouse, Yorkshire and Jan Wright of Radcliffes in London.
Solicitors for the Elderly believes that the better provision of legal services for an increasingly vulnerable part of society is one of the most significant and important issues in Private Client practice both today and in the future.
Jan Wright, If any reader is interested in knowing more about the Group please contact Danny Carter direct at Gepp and Sons, 58 New London Road Chelmsford, Essex, CM2 OPA; DX 3306 Chelmsford.
