Alison Meacher

Areas of expertise

• Private client
  • Community care

    Community care

    Alison is regularly instructed in matters of adult community care, appearing frequently in the Court of Protection and in the High Court in cases where there is a dispute as to whether a person should live in a care home or whether they should return to live in the community and what package of care the person is entitled to.

    She has been instructed in cases that include issues relating to (but not limited to) entitlement to services under the Care Act 2014, eligibility for deferred payment agreements, lawfulness of financial assessments, deprivation of assets, safeguarding, forced marriage, entitlement to NHS Continuing Healthcare funding (including retrospective applications), access to adaptations for a property or disabilities facilities grants and entitlement to social housing.

    She also advises on the recovery of unpaid domiciliary care and care home fees and as to the legalities, fairness and lawfulness of contracts with local authorities and or care providers.

    Alison is instructed by local authorities, care providers, registered providers of social housing, claimants or their family members, all of whom benefit greatly from her wealth of knowledge and experience in community care and the related fields which may have an impact on entitlement to and funding, including property ownership and value, habitual or ordinary residence, mental capacity, mental health (such as entitlement to s.117 after care services), healthcare law.

    Recent work

    • Advising whether terms of an agreement with a care home are fair pursuant to the Consumer Rights Act 2015
    • Advising whether a local authority was entitled to recover direct payments
    • Advising whether a local authority is liable to indemnity a resident for care home fees incurred when the local authority failed to assess whether resident’s capital was below the maximum financial threshold and representing at mediation
    • Successfully challenging the value of jointly owned property
    • Advising whether a person was ordinary resident in a particular local authority
    • Advising whether to seek judicial review of a decision not to offer a person accommodation in the community rather than in a care home
    • Advising whether a care home provider can enter into a deferred payment agreement with a resident and whether this an FCA regulated activity
  • Contentious Probate & Inheritance Act claims

    Contentious Probate & Inheritance Act claims

    Alison’s chancery practice incorporates a wide range of contentious and non-contentious probate work.    She is an accredited Trust and Estate Practitioner (TEP) with the Society of Trusts and Estate Practitioners.  She is also a member of the Chancery Bar Association and Contra.

    Her non-contentious work focuses on advising as to how to provide for beneficiaries who are entitled to welfare benefits, charges for care home fees and entitlement to CHC funding.

    Reported cases:

    • James v James [2018] EWCA Civ 1982 – appeal against six months sentence for contempt of court for personal representative of estate who refused to disclose whereabouts of estate funds;
    • A v D [2017] EWCOP 18 – statutory will, settlement of probate dispute, undue influence, capacity. An appeal against decision that settlement agreement in Chancery did not imposing a binding contract on P/her deputy to make a statutory will sharing her estate 50:50, and the granting of statutory will dividing the estate 75:25.

    Recent work:

    • Application to appointment a new trustee of a Will Trust;
    • Application to remove executor;
    • Settlement of 1975 Act claims at mediation (in person and online);
    • Resisting a challenge to the validity of a will on grounds of undue influence, lack of capacity and sham documentation produced in India;
    • Defending an intestacy and inheritance act claim from the purported wife of the deceased, pursuant to a traditional marriage in Ghana;
    • Advising as to nature and extent of beneficial interest in property purchased by unmarried partners;
    • Recovery of funds paid into Court Funds Office further to compulsory purchase of deceased’s property;
    • Advising as to whether the settlement of a 1975 Act claim for a client entitled to means tested benefit was negligent as the settlement failed to provide for a discretionary trust;
    • Post mortem variation of a Will and disclaimer of pecuniary legacy to preserve entitlement to means tested welfare benefits;
    • Recovery of care home fees where deprivation of assets by placing property in a family trust;
    • Statutory will where beneficiary was perpetrating financial abuse
    • Validity of lifetime gift;
    • Validity of pecuniary legacy to charity that no longer exists;
    • Whether the deceased made a gift mortis causa;
  • Court of Protection

    Court of Protection

    Alison’s Court of Protection practice includes property, welfare and hybrid cases.   She has experience of advising in disputes that involve cross-border issues, forced marriage, travel out of the jurisdiction and whether a person who lacks capacity should have the Covid vaccination.  Alison also undertakes inherent jurisdiction applications in the High Court.

    Alison’s knowledge of the law relating to adult social care, social housing and property ownership provide an invaluable resource for the amicable resolution of most disputes without the need for a final hearing.

    To this end, Alison is often instructed to provide an initial assessment and strategic advice as to whether there has been compliance with statutory obligations.

    Alison is well placed to advise local authorities, vulnerable adults, family members, personal representatives, deputies, attorneys, charities and commercial organisations who provide services in the health and social care sector

    Recent work:

    Property

    • A v D [2017] EWCOP 18 – statutory will, settlement of probate dispute, undue influence, capacity. An appeal against decision that settlement agreement in Chancery did not imposing a binding contract on P/her deputy to make a statutory will sharing her estate 50:50, and the granting of statutory will dividing the estate 75:25.
    • Challenging financial abuse by attorney;
    • Application by attorney for retrospective approval of a gift;
    • Revocation of LPA where not acting in best interest of P;
    • Entering into a tenancy agreement or care home contract on behalf of individuals who lack capacity;
    • Settlement of claim by mother against son for the provision of gratuitous care, where son lacked capacity to manage his finances;
    • Financial settlement between husband and wife, where the wife lacked capacity to divorce her husband and needed to release funds from a jointly owned property to meet her care home fees;
    • Appointment of a deputy;
    • Grant of a Statutory Will where P’s will made when she had capacity provided for a person who had previously defrauded P.

    Welfare

    • Whether a person lacks capacity to have the Covid vaccination;
    • Challenge to DOLS standard authorisation;
    • Authorisation of deprivation of liberty in supported living setting;
    • Determination of issues of capacity (to marry; to consent to sex; contact with family members; provision of care; residence);
    • Determination of best interest decision (where to reside; contact with others; provision of care; administration of Covid vaccination);
    • Drafting contact agreements for a person who lacks capacity to make decisions as to contact;
    • Whether P sexually abused;
    • Jurisdiction to make decisions if P subject to detention pursuant to the Mental Health Act 1983;
    • Whether family member should be permitted contact with P in care home.
  • Social welfare & benefits

    Social welfare & benefits

    Alison has expertise in both challenging and defending public law decisions, including welfare benefit decisions.  She is well-known for advising and representing local authorities in complex multi-claimant appeals and is frequency instructed in test cases.  Alison was involved in many of the significant decisions relating to exempt accommodation and recently represented the local authority in the leading bedroom tax case of SSWP v Hockley and Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council [2019] EWCA Civ 1080.

    She also acts for individual claimants, landlords and support providers.

    Alison is a member of the Equality and Human Rights Commission Panel of preferred Counsel.

    Reported cases:

    • SSWP v Hockley and Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council [2019] EWCA Civ 1080, Court of Appeal decision concerning the definition of a ‘bedroom’ for the purposes of HB regulation B13(5)
    • Reigate and Banstead BC v GB (HB) [2018] UKUT 225 (AAC) – valuation of jointly owned property and effect on entitlement to HB
    • JB v Oxford City Council and Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (FtT) – (related to [2011] UKUT 136 (AAC)) – the meaning of sheltered accommodation and claimant’s entitlement to HB to meet communal utility charges
    • Daventry District Council v Daventry & District Housing Ltd [2010] EWHC 1935 (Ch), [2011] EWCA 1153 – whether a large stock transfer of housing could be rectified for mistake (led by Nigel Jones KC)
    • CH/1246/2007 (Interim decision, UT) – whether supported living accommodation is exempt accommodation for the purpose of HB
    • CH/4085/2007 (UT) – whether failure to attend an interview as a precursor to the provision of a national insurance number justified refusal of HB
    • CH/136/2007 (UT) – whether supported living accommodation is exempt accommodation and whether the agreement creating the supported living scheme was on a commercial basis (reg 9(1)(a) and (l)
    • CH/3282/2006 (UT) – whether an agreement to provide accommodation was on a commercial basis (reg 9(1)(a) and (l))
    • CH/705/2005 (UT) – whether the doctrine of res judicata applies in the Tribunal Service (linked to Mayor and Burgesses of LB Waltham Forest v Roberts [2004] EWCA 940, [2005] HLR 21, CA)
    • CH/2124/2004 (UT) – whether a property in Scotland held by two individuals as tenants in common should be regarded as capital

    Other work:

    • Advising local authority whether a supported living setting was to be treated as exempt accommodation and or whether a commercial agreement
    • Advising the court whether a wife would be entitled to welfare benefits after proposed financial settlement upon divorce
    • Successfully challenged DWP decision to refuse mobility component of PIP
    • Successfully challenged decision that landlord liable to repay overpayment of HB