‘The Mental Capacity Act (MCA) was passed in parliament in 2008. It came into force on 1st March 2010 to replace the Mental Disorders and Treatment Act. The purpose of the Act is to provide a framework to protect persons who lack mental capacity. The Act also sets out, amongst other things, a statutory framework for individuals who want to make preparation for a future time should they lose lack capacity by allowing them to appoint proxy decision makers. Do contact our friendly lawyers to learn about the list of services provided on MCA.
Service
Mental Capacity Act Advisory
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Partner
Daniel Koh
Daniel is a Partner with the firm’s Dispute Resolution and Family Law team. His main area of practice is civil and criminal law litigation. He recently retired as a judge in the Family Justice Court after an illustrious public service career spanning almost 40 years. As a family court judge, he dealt with a wide range of family disputes, ancillary hearings, probate applications and contested lasting power of attorneys and deputyship appointment hearings under the Mental Capacity Act.
His adjudicative skills have been honed by his 2 decades of experience on the Singapore court bench, dealing with civil and criminal trials serving as a magistrate, assistant registrar, district judge and Registrar in the Subordinate Courts of Singapore. In 1995, as Registrar, he assisted the Chief Judge in initiating a comprehensive series of judicial reform and process engineering exercises that transformed the legal and judicial landscape in Singapore, significantly enhancing public access to justice and heightening public trust and confidence in the courts and the rule of law.
In May 2001, he held the position of Deputy Principal Senior State Counsel in the Attorney General’s Chambers prosecuting sensitive financial and securities fraud cases. As director, he supervised teams of deputy public prosecutors in the Financial Securities offences and Corruption & Specialist crime directorates. He was the lead prosecutor in several complex high profile white-collar crimes including the China Aviation Oil case, one of the biggest financial scandals in Singapore.
He was the first Public Guardian in Singapore from 2010 – 2015, seconded from the Attorney General’s Chambers in 2009 to take on this appointment.
Since the Mental Capacity Act came into effect on 1 March 2010, Daniel, supported by the Office of the Public Guardian, carried out various functions towards enabling and protecting vulnerable persons in the society who lack mental capacity. Since 2010 he has been a regular overseas expert speaker at several World Congress sessions held in Washington, Melbourne, Berlin, Tokyo and Seoul on guardianship law.
Partner
Chia Shengyou, Edwin
Edwin’s experience is in litigation and arbitration proceedings, and estate planning.
He has experience in a diverse range of matters (including disputes between shareholders / joint venture partners), and has acted as lead counsel in disputes concerning equity and trust (involving resulting trust and common intention constructive trust), contentious probate, employment matters and in disciplinary proceedings (as prosecuting counsel). In the area of estate planning, he has extensive expertise advising on issues concerning Wills, application for Grant of Probate / Letters of Administration (including foreign domiciled deceased), and Lasting Power of Attorney.
Edwin was listed in the 2020 edition of Singapore’s 21 most influential lawyers aged 40 and under by the Singapore Business Review. Additionally, he was named as one of the SAF NSmen of the Year in 2022. Edwin has also been recognised as a Future Star for Private Clients by Benchmark Litigation Asia-Pacific 2025
His notable experience includes acting as lead counsel where his clients successfully argued that the surviving joint owner of a commercial property was holding the said property on resulting trust on their behalf, before the General Division and the Appellate Division of the High Court, and the Court of Appeal. This matter received widespread media coverage.
Effectively bilingual, he has delivered seminars and webinars (in English and Mandarin) to and/or through various organisations, financial institutions, and news media on topics ranging from debt recovery to estate planning.