Balance of Probabilities – Mental Capacity Ltd

Mental Capacity and the complex nature of decision-making

21 August 202319 August 2023
Mental Capacity in Practice

It’s estimated that the average person makes around 35,000 decisions every single day. While this may seem a huge number, many of these are ‘micro decisions’ that we make without even thinking; the sorts of things that might have required great effort during childhood, but which in adulthood require barely any conscious effort at all.

Assessing capacity: lady and man in wheelchair wearing coats looking into the distance

What is the threshold of capacity?

31 October 202219 October 2022
Mental Capacity in Practice

When we refer to the ‘threshold of capacity’, we refer to the point at which a professional assessor can claim with confidence that an individual has or has not demonstrated capacity to make a specific decision at a specific point in time. This is determined by what is known as the balance of probabilities.