Please help me to get my mother back
Please help me to get my mother back
Latest: Dec. 21, 2020
Cruelty continues
I feel as if I am in an alternative universe.
The required litigation expenses £48,537.89 have been paid via my solicitor.
My mother , who has COVID seemed a bit stronger on Tuesday when I last h…
Read moreMy dream is to succeed in my guardianship application for my mother and to return her to her own home with a resident carer according to her wishes.
Since being deemed as losing capacity my mother has been put into a care home against her wishes.The Powers of Attorney acted without any consultation and have broken off all contact with me, her only daughter. Since January, 2019:
- They are isolating my mother from friends (including her school friend) and family.
- She is one of the few people in the home without a phone.
- Calls made to the home are not put through to her.
- Visitors are turned away at the door.
- I, as her daughter, have only had 2 visits allowed since January. The visits are supervised.Taboo topics include her house and her finances, the ban on me and others.
- I am not allowed to speak Polish, her native tongue, to her.
- Her mail is censored and possibly withheld. Polish mail is translated in order to censor it.
Basically she is denied her basic human rights.
My mother was deported to Siberia when she was six years old. She had more access to her culture and her family under Stalin than she has in her Scottish care home.
The existing Powers of Attorney are contesting my application. Hence there is a legal and costly process to go through before my guardianship hearing will take place. They are trying to frighten me off by escalating costs and having your backing gives me the confidence to make a stand.
Initially I am hoping to raise funds to cover extra costs over technicalities, some due to court error.Thereafter, contributions towards the never-ending fees which crop up regularly will be gratefully received.
In Scotland, as a daughter, I am eligible for legal aid for the actual guardian application, but most of the hearings are not covered by this funding.
As a guardian I can give my mother the care she deserves:
- I plan to find a Polish carer so she will have access to her culture and Polish food.
- She will be in touch with family like her only grandson, her Polish relatives and all her friends.
- She will be consulted on all decisions financial and otherwise.
- She will be encouraged to use her residual capacity and will have a reason to live.
I have experience of encouraging residual capacity. My dad had had vascular dementia for 5 years before he died.
She will have more protection with a guardian. Her financial accounts will be audited annually. I will be required to submit a business plan to the Office of the Public Guardian. The guardianship will be reviewed after three years.
None of these controls take place for Powers of Attorney.
Powers of Attorney have carte blanche to control all aspects of her life:
- They have ensured they are the only people allowed medical information and decision-making regarding my mother's health.
- They have complete control of her savings. My mother would never spend her money to take me to court!
I am determined to campaign for change to ensure more routine supervision of Powers of Attorney. On asking for advice from the organisation, 'Action on Elder Abuse', I was told situations like my mother's are common.
This is not just a Scottish problem. A 'Tonight' programme on STV on 27th June, 2019 highlighted examples throughout Britain about abuse of the powers that Powers of Attorney have.
Initially there will be hearings to identify whether the Powers of Attorney need to be supervised and to give me access to my mother. Then my guardianship application can go ahead.
My initial target for costs due to technicalities is £2000. The stretch target of £6000 would pay for the next set of hearings in October.
Thank you very much for taking the time to read this and contributing or sharing. All money raised goes directly to the lawyer to pay legal costs.
I cannot wait to dial her school friend's number and to let them talk to each other. They met in Stowell Park, a refugee school in England, and had shared traumatic experiences of Siberia, of travelling to Tehran and finally to Africa so their fathers and brothers could enlist in the Polish army. Hence they are close friends.
Given my recent experience, I would advise care when arranging a Power of Attorney. Once you lose capacity, you can do nothing yourself to change things. Someone else has to arrange a guardianship, a costly, uncertain and time-consuming business. While you have capacity it is fairly easy to make changes.
My mother has lost a year of her life in this care home. Time is of the essence. With your help we can get my mother a good quality of life.
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I'll share on FacebookA concerned daughter
Dec. 21, 2020
Cruelty continues
I feel as if I am in an alternative universe.
The required litigation expenses £48,537.89 have been paid via my solicitor.
My mother , who has COVID seemed a bit stronger on Tuesday when I last had contact with her via Skype. Since I have been told that I am not allowed more than the two scheduled calls unless she deteriorates I can only assume she is doing well. All contact with her nursing staff/caring staff has been forbidden.
Her only grandson has been phoning the care home to get to speak to his granny or babcia as he calls her and has been fobbed off.
I thank you yet again for your support during this nightmare. Please keep your fingers crossed that my mother recovers and there can be a way to get her out of this dire situation.
A concerned daughter
Dec. 13, 2020
Expenses
It has been a stressful couple of days. On Thursday morning, 10th December, 2020, I heard on Radio Scotland that the home my mother was in had been heavily affected by COVID. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-55256228.
On Friday afternoon the home phoned me to say she had tested positive. Since August I have been allowed a Skype call a week for 20 minutes on Tuesdays and Fridays at rigid times and hence I did get to speak to her on the Friday afternoon. She was very tired. On Friday and Saturday, I got updates from the most delightful nurses in the care home, but on Sunday when I rang, I was told by the manager that the Powers of Attorney have decreed that I can only get information from her even although she is not in direct contact with my mother. Fortunately, there was a change of heart and I was reassured to be able to speak to my mother who was a lot better and to a delightful carer.
On Friday, coincidentally, we had the final stage of the taxation where the litigation costs which I have to pay were finalized. We had met before on 2nd November 2020, but the taxation was adjourned. The Powers of Attorney were arguing that their interpretation of the sheriff’s ruling was that this was to be a sanction against me and that my mother’s estate should not lose any money at all. All that was required for a cost to be legitimate was that the Powers of Attorney agree it. The accounts had included legal fees long before I had initiated the civil action to save my mother’s house and other costs which were highly questionable. Examples include obstructing access to my possessions in the family home and other legal fees which were not part of the action. Since the Powers of Attorney were acting jointly their solicitor took the liberty of charging me £10 for every e-mail he copied in to one or other of the Powers of Attorney. There were 49 of these. They had also appointed a professional accountant after the court case and were trying to get me to pay for this. The tax accountant who decides which costs are legitimate and whose job would have been redundant if their interpretation was accepted wanted time to investigate their claim.
In Friday’s taxation the tax accountant did not accept the Powers' of Attorney position that they have carte blanche so he did deduct a couple of things: the duplicate e-mails, a hearing which was not part of the action and the expenses of the professional accountant they had appointed but I still have to pay for the endless e-mails about the contents of the house and my access to get my possessions and things that I was storing for the flat that a safeguarding solicitor had reported that my mother wanted. I actually only had one day in the house, but did buy back some of the things from the house clearance showroom afterwards.
The final figures of the amount I have to pay, will be presented soon. I shall send an update when I know what that is.
Please keep your fingers crossed that my mother recovers. She has survived Siberia and life as a refugee where she was in contact with awful diseases.
A concerned daughter
Feb. 20, 2020
Sheriff's ruling on expenses
The award of costs is 50% uplift of the usual expenses award up to 1 July 2019 and then solicitor/client expenses thereafter (which is closer to costs actually incurred). In other words the sheriff is charging me the bulk of the £46,000 quoted since most of the costs were incurred after 1 July, 2019.
This is awful news.
I shall keep you updated on progress.
I am so grateful for your contributions which have made it possible for me to keep you updated on the case. Thank you.
A concerned daughter
Feb. 7, 2020
Meeting with officials of Scottish government
The Scottish government is interested in lived experiences of legislation. Via Nicola Sturgeon, the First Minister of Scotland I was given the opportunity to meet officials of the Scottish government. They were very generous with their time and have documented the meeting showing how carefully they listened to what I had to say.
Topics included:
- elder abuse and isolation
- difficulty in finding a body to protect the vulnerable person
- unbridled powers of Powers of Attorney
- substitution decision-making and its shortcomings
- regulatory bodies not being able to help.
There was a lot of discussion about training needs for the Powers of Attorney and for all the people involved with them. Finally there was a comparison to the guardian system which has an annual audit of finances and is automatically reviewed after 3 years.
They told me about plans for the future which are to replace substitute decision-making with assisted decision-making allowing the Adult to use their residual capacity and be involved in major decisions. This has already been introduced in the Adult Incapacity Act(2000). This change is really important to ensure my situation would not be possible.
The biggest revelation as far as I am concerned is that the Adult Incapacity Act (2000) if enforced would have protected my mother and probably the whole costly legal process could have been avoided. The Powers of Attorney have not followed this legislation and no-one seemed to be concerned about it, even although I had sent in a formal complaint to the local authority as advised by the Mental Welfare Commission highlighting this in January of 2019.
A concerned daughter
Nov. 29, 2019
Expenses hearing
The expenses hearing took place yesterday, on 28th November, 2019.
The Powers of Attorney have run up a bill of £44,000 for legal costs with my mother's money, which will rise to £45,798.54 when the law accountant's fee is included. They claim that they are very concerned now that her estate is being depleted. This cost is far higher than my costs so far, so clearly money was no object!
They had requested a hearing with the sheriff which means that they were aiming for 100% of the costs.
The Expenses hearing is an opportunity for the sheriff to make a ruling on the rate of payment.
There are two scales of payment: agent/client or party/party.
The former would relate to the amount of above and the latter would relate to an amount of £36,226.22. In the latter case a percentage uplift can be granted by the sheriff where the amount paid will be more than that.
The sheriff has decided to give a written ruling and I await to hear his decision.
A concerned daughter
Nov. 19, 2019
New date for expenses hearing
The expenses hearing will now take place on 28 November, 2019 instead of 20 November, 2019.
Thank you for your interest.
A concerned daughter
Nov. 7, 2019
The state of my guardianship application
The case which was lost on 24 October, 2019 was not the guardianship hearing.
On 18 September, 2019 the guardianship was dismissed due to court error. The date set for the hearing was outside the dates allowed for the guardianship hearing after the publication of the Medical Health Officer's report. The application could be revived in the future.
At the same hearing on 18 September the sheriff approved a proof with craves relating to OPG supervision for the Powers of Attorney and my access to my mother. The date for the pre-proof was set to 21 October and the date for the proof was set to 24 October 2019. In the interim there was a lot of time-wasting activity between the solicitors which had no other function than increasing costs. I appointed an advocate who requested the statutory records that Powers of Attorney are supposed to keep. These were never produced but in hearings on 4 October and 7 October the craves for the proof were redefined and agreed.
On 24 October there was a new sheriff, new to the case and new to the area. Systematically he went through all the craves finding fault with each one even if it had been approved beforehand. The result was that there was no case left and it was dismissed. Because it was dismissed the Powers of Attorney asked for and were awarded expenses.
No evidence was looked at, so the case was thrown out on a technicality rather than an evidence-based decision.
A concerned daughter
Oct. 24, 2019
case thrown out
The case has been thrown out on a technicality. There will be another hearing on 20th November to decide what expenses I have to pay since the Powers of Attorney have been awarded expenses.
A concerned daughter
Oct. 22, 2019
Dates of hearings
There was a pre-proofing on Monday, 21 October, 2019.
The next hearing is on Thursday, 24 October, 2019.
Thank you very much for your contributions and supportive comments.
I am very keen to communicate these power-of-attorney issues to as wide an audience as possible.
Please could you help by sharing the link: https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/guardianship/
on Facebook and help publicize the lack of support for vulnerable people.
Thank you very much for your backing.
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