Elizabeth Hughes

Practice Areas

Liz Hughes is a solicitor and the firm's Managing Director, specialising in mental capacity and Court of Protection work. Liz has a great deal of experience in Court of Protection and mental capacity work which includes:

Administering property and affairs deputyships for clients who have impairments due to acquired brain injury, deteriorating illnesses, learning disability and mental health;

Administering deputyships for clients who have ongoing personal injury or clinical negligence litigation including the management of substantial interim payments and ultimately, the final damages award;

Administering “panel” deputyships referred to the firm as a result of Hugh Jones’ appointment on the Court of Protection’s panel of professional deputies. These cases often involve complex legal issues, consideration of sensitive family issues and relationships and depleted estates;

Financial abuse investigations;

Applications to call in security bonds;

All kinds of Court of Protection applications including applications for the appointment of a deputy, statutory will applications, gift applications, applications for approval of gratuitous/family care payments, applications for retrospective approval of a decision made by a deputy and applications for the approval of a property purchase or other substantial capital expenditure;

All kinds of contested Court of Protection proceedings including disputes in relation to the appointment of a deputy and applications where capacity is disputed or not straightforward;

Applications for the discharge of a Protected Party who has achieved or recovered capacity to make their own property and affairs decisions;

Representing lay deputies who are subject to proceedings brought by the Office of the Public Guardian;

Liz enjoys working closely with clients, their relatives, case managers, carers and others involved in their care in order to ensure that clients receive whatever support they might need to make as many decisions as they can for themselves.

Liz has an established expert witness practice and is regularly instructed to give advice, witness statements and Part 35 reports on all aspects of the costs of the management of affairs, Court of Protection practice and mental capacity issues.

Client testimonials:

‘I instruct Elizabeth Hughes for the purposes of deputyship witness statements for costings on my high value brain injury claims and instruct her as an independent expert on behalf of NHS Trusts. Her attention to detail, reliability, efficiency and responsiveness is excellent and she is easy to work with.’

'Elizabeth Hughes is extremely knowledgeable but at the same time approachable and personable. Elizabeth is pragmatic in her approach and in my experience has always reached the outcome before others have got there'

‘Elizabeth Hughes is committed to her clients and strives to provide the best possible service. She is communicative and receptive to suggestions to resolve complex issues, giving possible solutions balanced and fair consideration. Liz is friendly and approachable to her clients and other professionals and will seek advice from her colleagues to ensure that as much information is available when required and the client receives a positive and supportive service.’

‘Liz Hughes provides robust pragmatic advice and opinions, in a cost-effective and always timely manner.’

‘Elizabeth Hughes has a very caring nature and is very empathetic.’

'Elizabeth Hughes is recommended by clients is a 'trusted pair of hands' with clients commenting 'Liz Hughes has provided excellent service. She is calm and knowledgeable.'