Legal Mental Capacity

Division 2, Part 17 of the Probate Code deals with legal mental capacity. Section 810 provides three legislative findings and declarations.

Section 811 states that a determination that a person is of unsound mind or lacks the capacity to make a decision or do a certain act, including the incapacity to contract, to make a conveyance, to marry, to make medical decisions, to execute wills, or to execute trusts, must be supported by evidence of a deficit in at least one of the specified mental functions and evidence of a correlation between the deficit or deficits and the decision or acts in question.

Section 812 provides that a person lacks the capacity to make a decision unless the person has the ability to communicate verbally, or by any other means, the decision, and to understand and appreciate, to the extent relevant, all three specified items.

Section 813 explains that, for purposes of a judicial determination, a person has the capacity to give informed consent to a proposed medical treatment if the person is able to do all seven specified actions. A person who has the capacity to give informed consent to a proposed medical treatment also has the capacity to refuse consent to that treatment.