Exes solicitor has cost me over £2000! Need advice!

[Flowergirl1982]

I am currently involved within a family court case where my son’s father has pursued a contact order and shared residency. We are both represented by solicitors.

His solicitor is a witch, she’s a criminal solicitor and absolutely unprofessional, rude and basically riles him up so that he’s even more of a vile person to me, even telling his girlfriend to film me on my property during handovers despite there being no history of any allegations or altercations during handovers.

Anyway, we had the initial hearing a few months back and returned recently for what I and my solicitor believed to be the final contested hearing. In this interim period, my solicitor emailed his witchy solicitor and asked her to amend on her final copy of the interim contact order that it was not a review hearing but a final hearing. (Witchy solicitor doesn’t know what she’s doing and always makes mistakes as she’s a criminal solicitor).

Anyway, I paid to the total sum of around £2000 in barrister fees and solicitor fees for solely the final hearing. We get there on the day, and the magistrate say they won’t see us as a final hearing as his barrister has only been briefed for a review hearing by Witchy Solictior and they have it down as a review hearing! There is NOTHING TO REVIEW!

So now, I have another court date set in another few months time and I have to pay ANOTHER £2000+ in fees. I am fuming, I’m a single mum of 3 children on nurses wages. I really can not afford it. Can anyone advise on how I can go about gaining compensation or who I would contact?!

Thanks xx

Is it possible to ask for costs from him due to this? There is sometimes precedents for this if it can be proved the court is being used unnecessarily- but I'm not sure if the legalities in the UK. Hopefully someone with appropriate knowledge can reply x

This is why you need to weigh up potential gain against solicitors fees.

God almighty. Bloody outrageous, and it happens ALL the time. I represented myself during all my court proceedings (which was hideous and I was absolutely crap) because ultimately I knew it wouldn't make any difference and I had to prioritise putting food on the table first. My ex had the full legal team and also never paid a penny of child support.

I think it's unlikely that you can put in an application for costs, but your solicitor will know. Sending hugs and solidarity.

You don't write to the other side to correct a court order. You write to the court. If there is a disagreement between the parties as to what precise order was made the court will check the magistrates notes.

Sounds like it was listed as a review hearing and your solicitor may have got it wrong.

Agree with Collaborate.

From the description, your ex's solicitor was following the order correctly. As Collaborate says, she cannot correct the order if it is wrong. The order can only be corrected by the court. So I have no idea why your solicitor asked her to change the order, nor do I have any idea why your solicitor briefed a barrister for a final hearing when the order said it was a review hearing.

The interim court order had not been agreed fully as there were disputes about what time my son would be brought back at the weekends as it was ambiguous in court. They drafted it to us and we said no and it went backwards and forwards for a couple of weeks until they finally submitted it to court. The final order did say final hearing x