Sheffield Solicitor Mary Butler of Bell & Buxtons slams Daily Mail on Court of Protection article

'I would like to start with a disclaimer which is that I do not read the Daily Mail even online. However, my husband, who was doing an internet cruise yesterday brought this article to my attention. I, like many of you, am no great fan of the Court but this would be funny if it were not likely to cause worry to so many people. It is gutter sensationalist journalism bearing virtually no resemblance to the truth even from one of the preliminary statements that the court was set up two years ago.

'Strange..... I wonder who it was that I was corresponding with all those years previously. As for the Court conducting raids to recover papers, in my experience getting them to do anything within their powers can be a struggle let alone mounting an SAS raid with or without a warrant which would clearly be required.

'The Mail starts from a political and polemical premise that this is the wicked socialists interfering in the lives of honest to goodness folk who left to their own devices would only do the decent thing by their incapacitated relatives and friends. Happily for my financial abuse practise I know this is not true. But I do think that the Chief Exec of the Court ought to be encouraged to refer this to the Press Complaints Commission. This is deliberate lies/misrepresentation with a clearly defined political agenda and is likely to upset precisely those people who are not sophisticated enough to realise that it is.'

- Mary Butler, Head of Private Client Services & Contentious Probate Specialist at Bell & Buxton Solicitors of Sheffield