Help choosing barrister

[Mumof3confused]

Help! I’ve got a final hearing in finances coming up and I don’t know whether to go for the reasonably priced local barrister or spend 3 x the fee on one from a London chambers. The expensive one has amazing reviews and I’ve no doubt he’d be very good. However, money is extremely tight and I wonder if a local barrister might be just as good - at least he knows the local judges. I assume this may be to some advantage.

Ours isn’t a terribly complicated case but there’s a business involved, my ex is a textbook narcissist and somehow his solicitor seems to be a clone of himself.

It might be worth spending an extra £10k to get, say £30k more from the settlement, but how much difference does the barrister make to sway a judge? Is it a case of you get what you pay for?

Usually your solicitors would advise you or are you looking for a barrister you can instruct directly?

Depends on how much you’re fighting over, what your level of disconnect is and if you’ve had any directions yet from a judge on what the outcome might be

I’m self representing so using direct access barrister.

We’re mostly fighting over a directors loan that was taken from my company and which he doesn’t want to pay off (it was spent on a house extension). We were due to add it to the mortgage when it was up for renewal but by then had separated. They have completely twisted the forensic accountants report stating what can/can’t be paid off using the existing funds within the company itself.

He wants to leave me with £100k worth of debt and claims he ‘needs’ it for his wish list of renovations he is planning on his new house. Amongst other things he has stripped all wallpaper from the entire house so it now looks like a crack den and he’s submitting quotes for re-plastering and decoration. He claims he owes family £30k. He’s also submitted a ridiculous monthly schedule or needs and is asking for maintenance even though he’s the higher earner (he’s basing this again on his fantasises about my ‘earning potential’).

My offer is simply pay off the joint loan as per the forensic accountants report and split everything else down the middle. I feel I am being quite reasonable. It’s just getting this across to a judge. His side is mostly dishing up dirt and portraying me as an evil monster.

Hmm if it’s company law adjacent it might be worth the London barrister just because it might be something he has more experience of - is there a way to check that with both the barristers you’re considering?

I think both have a good understanding of financial reporting, it’s not so much company law but arguing about whether the loan is ‘repayable’ or not. The expert report is quite clear but the other side are experts at confusing things - for example equating the company turnover to my personal income (forgetting costs, corporation tax and dividend tax). I don’t think it needs a genius to put this across in a court setting but perhaps I’m overly optimistic?