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As part of Safer Ageing Week 2024, we’re supporting Karen Lee and Laura Johnston-Brand’s campaign for Willie’s Law.
Did you know that currently in Scotland a legal professional can make the sole decision as to someone’s capacity to sign an important and legally binding document?
Capacity is the legal term which describes a person's ability to make decisions and understand what they are doing when they make those decisions.
When a scenario arises where an ill or vulnerable person is asked to sign a legal document there is currently no statutory requirement for a medical professional to co-sign to ensure that they are able to fully consent to the process.
This is the situation Perth farmer Willie Johnston found himself in while he was terminally ill in hospital in January 2020. Willie signed over a substantial life insurance policy to his business partner and documents that devalued his estate costing him hundreds of thousands of pounds. The true cost to Willie's estate is not yet known. Although his daughters Laura and Karen have campaigned for a change in the law, they are still facing barriers in their mission.
In our recent manifesto Hourglass asked the government at Holyrood to introduce ‘Willie’s Law’ and an economic abuse strategy which would require a medical professional to co-sign legal documents of vulnerable people to prove they have legal capacity.
Hourglass are proud to support Willie’s family and we will continue to work collaboratively and in support of them to lobby for the introduction of this crucial legislation.
In this interview Willie’s daughters, Laura Johnston-Brand and Karen Lee, explain the background to the need for Willie’s Law and why it could not only protect vulnerable people but also add a layer of protection to legal professionals involved in similarly sensitive cases.
First of all, can you tell us a bit about your dad?
Dad was a typical farmer, he was born into a respected farming family and spent his whole life on Hilton farm in Perth. He was so proud of his community and was often at farmers markets or agriculture shows talking to everyone. I remember it taking us all day to get around the Perth show as we would have to stop and talk to all the other farmers.
He loved to read and we would often laugh that on his birthday we would buy him a book and he would have already read it. He had quite an impressive library!
He went to Italy with the scouts when he was younger and it sparked a love for visiting new places. When Karen lived abroad he went to visit and would just wander around without a care in the world meeting locals and finding new places.
However, the thing that he loved most was his family. He loved being a granddad. His grandchildren were everything to him. He would make sure to either call or see them every week. He loved when the kids would visit the farm and just sit in the garden with him or take them to the park. His grandchildren and family were the most important thing in his world.
What was the background to his illness and how long was he in hospital for?
He was diagnosed with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) and his first hospital stay was Halloween 2019. He was in and out a few times but his final admission was at the start of Dec 2019 when he was admitted to the ICU and we were told that it would be his last Christmas. He passed away on 19th January 2020. It was a very quick decline, he had just turned 60 in August.
When did you first realise what had happened with your dad’s assets?
10 days before dad passed we found out that over the Christmas period dad had signed documents while in the ICU presented to him by his solicitor and business partner. It was such a shock, we had regularly taken his mail to him and mostly it was junk or bills but when he got this letter he was devastated. He was a strong man but this broke him completely.
Can you describe the impact of this on your dad's comfort and dignity?
It was indescribably cruel, we didn’t fully understand what had happened to start with but dad was so upset. We called the solicitor and said how upset dad was but that didn’t really give us a true understanding of what had happened. We genuinely thought there must have been a mistake.
These were people my dad trusted and had known for years, pretty much his whole life when it comes to his business partner (also dad’s cousin).
The last few weeks of my dad’s life were ruined. He felt betrayed and even more vulnerable, he was worried something else could've happened or had happened that we didn’t know about. We spent a lot of time talking to another solicitor about how to fix it, time we should have been with dad, and dad was constantly asking if we had heard from the solicitor or what was happening next. Those shouldn’t have been our last conversations. We should have been remembering happy times and saying our goodbyes.
When we first got the letter we called the solicitor that sent it. He came to the hospital and spoke with us and dad. Dad said he had no memory of the meeting. At that point the solicitor said he had to step back as it was a conflict of interest. We then spoke to a different solicitor who gave us some advice and we started our journey.
We made a formal complaint to the Scottish law society and followed all of the rules they had for that process. They started an investigation and appointed someone to our case. They were not allowed to give us feedback or practical help and we were not allowed to discuss the complaint with anyone, even each other. We were not in a position to have a solicitor help us build a case against another solicitor. We had no knowledge of the law or how to fight it. The complaint process took years, it was hard and isolating.
We had to keep going over it again and again and we were told that the solicitor felt dad knew what he was doing. It was crazy to us, if you had seen Dad in the hospital. How could you think someone in ICU could make legal decisions like that!
We were so shocked to find out that the solicitor could decide if dad had capacity without any medical input! It is not a legal requirement in Scotland for a solicitor to get a capacity assessment done on vulnerable people before they sign potentially life changing documents. The solicitor was not medically trained, dad was in a ward for the sickest of the sick, in his last weeks of life but as the solicitor thought he was ok and that he could sign life changing documents.
We eventually got through the complaint process and the investigation recommended it get taken to a tribunal. Once the complaint process was over the complaint no longer belonged to us. The Law society took over our complaint and they were the ones that took the solicitor to tribunal.
We didn't understand the importance of this but it meant we were not involved in the "negotiations" or the evidence used. During the tribunal the solicitor said he was sorry and how much of an impact it had had on him, which I thought was ridiculous as we were the ones that were grieving and having to fight this. We were not able to put the complaint aside until we felt able too as Law society complaints have to be done shortly after the event. The impact on us and dad wasn't a factor in the tribunal but the impact on the solicitor was.
In the end the solicitor was found guilty of multiple counts of misconduct and received a £5,000 fine. He's able to continue his business and life but we are still in the same position we started in. We followed all the rules, did everything the right way yet almost 5 years on and we are still fighting to correct what was done. It was during the tribunal we found out what happened was completely legal and that other countries have stronger safeguards for vulnerable people. We didn't want anyone else to go through what we had too.
Can you describe what the journey has been like since you started campaigning for Willie’s Law?
It’s been a bit of an eye opener, we were so surprised that this was all legal and allowed, that we knew we needed to try and stop it from happening to others. But since starting Willie's Law we have been contacted by so many other people in similar positions. We have heard heartbreaking stories about vulnerable people signing away properly, businesses, insurance policies, things they worked hard for during their lives.
We have realised in a weird way we were lucky we found out what happened while dad was still alive at least we had evidence that this wasn’t his choice. Most others have not been so lucky. This type of abuse of power is normally only discovered after someone has passed away with no chance to dispute it. Which is why this is so important.
I can’t think of any other situation where a non-medical professional is asked to decide if you are mentally able to make decisions like this. It’s so shocking that it is allowed. We need to make a change to protect vulnerable people in Scotland. We will all be vulnerable one day and this can happen to anyone.
Other countries have other safeguards in place, why don’t we?
Support the family of Willie Johnston by signing the petition for Willie’s Law here
