Phone hearing didn’t happen!

[Megala]

I was supposed to have a telephone hearing for a First Appointment as part of my financial hearings for divorce (3rd attempt at this hearing!).

It was supposed to happen at 10am, but 10am came and went. At 10:20 the court said it’d be another 10-15 mins, but we never heard from them again. My solicitor kept trying to call them but couldn’t get through.

That was 3 days ago, and I’ve not heard a thing since.

Has anyone had a phone hearing just not happen? What happens next? Obviously as there was no hearing, there’s no judge to issue any order, even for a new hearing.

In addition - between the preparation and waiting, this has cost me around £1k in legal fees. Can I claim these back from the courts, since they just didn’t hold the hearing?!

No you cannot claim the legal fees but should negotiate with your solicitor about reducing the charge as it was waiting time. I expect something more important came in the judge had to deal with.

To clarify you shouldn't be charged twice for the prep time, so the only extra incurred should be charged as waiting time which may or may not be charged at their usual rate depending upon their practice.

Why should there be waiting time? It was a phone hearing. They were either sat at their desk and could do other work or sat at home, and again could do other work. That's the beauty of telephone hearings. No waiting time involved.

Gosh yes, you're absolutely right.

They’ve charged me for a few hours of waiting time. I guess they couldn’t get on with anything else because they were expecting the court to call at any second. There was also all the attempted phone calls trying to find out what on earth was going on.

Tbh, I’m less worried about the cost (although it hurts - I’ve now spent c.£6k on legal fees and still not had an effective first appointment), and more worried about what happens next.

My solicitor said that his other cases were scheduling their next hearings for Feb/March next year because there was such a backlog of cases. I first applied for a financial order in July 2019! But then we haven’t had an order for another hearing, as our case hasn’t been before a judge. This is crushing me.