DM v Dorset County Council [2019] EWCOP 4

Application by the P against a decision that he lacked capacity to litigate on his own behalf in proceedings brought by Dorset County Council. Appeal dismissed.

The P was diagnosed as suffering from an impairment of, or disturbance in, the functioning of his mind or brain arising out of a persistent delusional disorder. Dorset County Council had sought the appointment of a deputy to manage the P’s property and affairs on the basis of his apparent inability to do so on his own account. The P wanted to conduct the substantive proceedings on his own account but the court held that he lacked capacity to do so. The P appealed this decision.

The court dismissed the appeal. In relation to the P’s first ground of appeal (no reasonable grounds for believing he lacked litigation capacity), the court could see no basis on which it could be said that his proposed appeal would have a real prospect of success. In relation to his second ground (failure to understand the P’s submissions reduced to writing in his witness statement), again there was nothing in his second ground of appeal which led the court to consider that this ground had any real prospect of success.
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Read the full text of the judgment on Bailii