Mental Health Solicitors

We have established and respected Mental Health lawyers to represent you in all aspects of Mental Health law.

How can we help?
Mental Health Law is highly specialised and Berris Law is widely respected mental health law firm, helping patients detained under the Mental Health Act seeking discharge from hospital.

Berris Law Mental Health Team consists of specialist Law Society Accredited Advocates.

Berris Law is based in Hammersmith and Ealing in London, acting for clients both locally and further afield, including in high secure hospitals.

Many of the cases our Mental Health Lawyers help with begin with a challenge against detention under the Mental Health Act, but we also seek to address many other legal issues which detained people may encounter like Community Treatment Orders (CTO) and Guardianship.

We pride ourselves in giving a high level of client care combined with a firm and professional approach when representing our clients’ legal needs.

What Berris Law solicitors will do
We can advise on and represent you in all aspects of mental health. Here is a snapshot of our work:

• Representation at Mental Health Tribunals and Hospital Managers’ hearings.
• Providing advice and assistance at Hospital Manager’s hearings.
• Advice and assistance on the rights of detained patients including voluntary / informal patients.
• Advising and assisting at Section 117 and Care Programme Approach (CPA) meetings as well as other meetings.
• The provision of aftercare services and challenges in respect of this.
• Judicial Review of unlawful decisions made by the Mental Health Second Tier Tribunal, NHS Trusts, Social Services and Local Authorities.
• Applications for immediate release (habeas corpus)
• Advising nearest relatives on their powers under the Mental Health Act.
• Acting for patients and nearest relatives in relation to displacement proceedings in the County Court.
• Acting for prisoners with mental health issues.
• Appeals to the Upper Tier Tribunal.
• Human Rights Act challenges.
• Advice on Consent to Treatment provisions under the Mental Health Act.

Funding your case
If you instruct us on a challenge of your detention to a mental health tribunal, you will be entitled to free representation.

In most other situations we can act for you under a form of legal aid, which means that the cost of your case is wholly or partly paid for from public funds. This is only available to people with limited means and with the approval of the Legal Aid Agency. We can help you work out whether you are eligible for legal aid and, if you are, we’ll guide you through the application process.

Where Legal Aid is not available or if you wish to receive our services on a private basis, we can quote you competitive rates for our work. Click here to find out more.

Our approach to fees is simple,  we’ll do everything we possibly can to ensure you receive best value legal advice.

That means helping you secure Legal Aid, if it’s available for you. It means checking out whether you have any legal expenses insurance which could fund your case. It also means agreeing the best arrangement for you, if you’re going to be paying our fees directly.

We recognise that clients usually come to us when there are problems to resolve. We work hard not to add to those problems. We’ll be clear about how much we think it will cost for us to conclude your case and we’ll discuss with you the ways of managing that cost.

You could ask us to work on just one part of your case, for a limited time. Or you could ask us to be by your side for the duration, for a fixed fee. In some cases we offer conditional fee agreements where the amount you pay depends on the outcome of your case.

We work to budgets, to fixed fees and to bespoke arrangements because we know that every client has different circumstances. When you instruct us, you’ll discover that value for money is as important to us as it is to you. You’ll find that our fees are competitive. You’ll also discover that our service delivers on our promises.