Financial settlement...should I pay more for a 'good' barrister?

[piellabakewell]

Court hearing is on 27 Jan, my solicitor wants to know how experienced I want my barrister to be eg £600 worth or £1100 worth or somewhere along the scale!

I'm asking for a financial settlement in respect of the marital home, which exH now lives in, and I'm not bothered about pensions, savings etc other than how they affect the overall pot and therefore possible lump sum due.

So, is a £600 barrister good enough or do I go higher? I'm not going to meet them before the court date in any event.

Does your solicitor have an opinion/advice? Just because a person has more years of experience it doesnt necessarily make then better.

If it is all fairly straightforward would it make much difference? Mind you, if it's going to court maybe it isn't or the solicitors or mediators might have sorted it.

It's going to court because I waited over a year for exchange of Form E's and then gave up waiting and applied to the court for a hearing.

My solicitor doesn't really do advice .

Make your solicitor do advice. It's what you're paying for. I would go for the higher call barrister tbh for the sake of five hundred quid.

She's more of a paralegal I think, she took over when the solicitor I had left the practice. She's not great, but I'm too far down this road to bother finding someone else. Have had nisi since July last year and want this over and done with!

I guess another £500 won't hurt when I've already spent ££££s.

tbh even £1100 is on the low side. I generally use a particular chap I've instructed for 12 years or so now because he's a safe pair of hands, is good on his feet and hasn't let me down yet and he charges £2k a day, £700 for a con.

Someone charging £600 is no doubt extremely bright, but likely to have just qualified.

BTW don't dismiss the pensions share, I was going to waive my claim on that in return for other bits, my solicitor told me I was mad & when we got the final figures I saw why

Good to know there is a bit of an income for later in life as I'll be working until I'm about 75 at this rate!

Good luck in court!

My BILs barrister cost £1200 even though it was adjourned at the last minute. She gave lots of advice though and we thought this was the average price. £600 sounds very low. Another £1200 about to be paid in March lol.

Good luck in the court case, it seems fairly straightforward. BILs is also only about the house.

You need to kknow what financial settlement you want & what you'll settle for. Does your solicitor think it realistic. If you are reaching for the moon pay the extra money, if it is straightforward £500 is a lot of extra money

I would go on recommendations to be honest as opposed to just price- for example, my best friend was a barrister and charged a lot simply because she had no shame and was money hungry- and she got it. I wouldn't necessarily say she was any better than another friend who was just more honest!

A good barrister is worth their weight in gold. I had some wet chap for the first hearing and he might as well not have been there for all the help he was. For the second hearing I had a lady who was frankly scary. She pretty much bullied my ex (and barrister) into an agreement and also had some tough words for me about what I should, or shouldn't accept.

Your case doesn't sound too complicated. I would have thought you'd be fine with someone junior. I would consider saying you want a conference first, might cost you £150ish, but would give you a chance to assess whether you have confidence in them. If you don't, you could always cancel them and get someone else - don't mention this at the outset though!

(A conference is a meeting with a barrister, usually at their offices, likely to take about an hour. It's a chance for them to get info from you, for them to give you advice and to answer any questions you have).

I suspect no one has properly advised the posterd as to what the hearing is and that it may well just be an interim one not a final one but she may not know that. It sounds like the ex husband is being very slow, is in the marital home and the wife wants a share of it.

babybarrister, I would expect a conference would cost more than £150 if it was a stand alone booking, but if it is shortly before a final hearing and is tied in to that booking, then there is scope for a reduced fee I think. To my mind, it just brings forward the conference you'd have on the morning of the hearing. Perhaps I'm being overly optimistic, but I think it's worth getting the solicitor to make an enquiry with counsel's clerk.