Cancelled Family Court Hearing

bealine99

About two months ago, the Oxford Family Court cancelled my daughter's Two DayaFinal Childrens' Matters Hearing 48 hours beforehand because of a shortage of judges.
My daughter still lost between £7,900 in legal fees because her barrister had already booked two days to be in court.
I understand all my daughter is able to do is complain to the court, if she wishes, but the courts will give no compensation.
Is this right?   Is this fair?   Is there anything she can do to reclaim any part of her losses from anybody?

marcia_

bealine99 said:

About two months ago, the Oxford Family Court cancelled my daughter's Two DayaFinal Childrens' Matters Hearing 48 hours beforehand because of a shortage of judges.
My daughter still lost between £7,900 in legal fees because her barrister had already booked two days to be in court.
I understand all my daughter is able to do is complain to the court, if she wishes, but the courts will give no compensation.
Is this right?   Is this fair?   Is there anything she can do to reclaim any part of her losses from anybody?

 It's not fair no but there is no compensation from anybody in these circumstances. 

T.T.D

What is in her contract with the solicitors and chambers barrister, that’s really important because if this isn’t factored into the contract then she shouldn’t  have to pay it, but if it is and it usually is then she does.

48hrs notice isn’t a fair amount of pre warning to prevent any losses it’s usually a minimum of 7-10 days pre warning as barristers can’t just pick up another case and walk into it from someone else on a case they’re not familiar with. 

They commit their time and calendar days to your case and when it’s cancelled they have a two day period of practically no work so this scenario is factored into the contract usually. 

She could make a motion for seeking a wasted costs order due to lack of reasonable notice of court cancellation. 

 Sometimes the courts agree that the cancellation was given too late compared to the time the court found out it wouldn’t have staff; say 7 days earlier they knew this case would’ve been short a judge then they can grant the order. 

If a judge suddenly became sick 2 days before and no effort to find another then the order may be granted.

 If the court did its best to get another but couldn’t then it can’t be granted as all reasonable steps were taken to find a replacement. 

She needs to speak with the solicitor and barrister, she needs to contact the court and ask the court clerks when they found out the court had no staff for the case, what steps the took to find one and go from there. 

Oh and it’s not that court will give NO compensation at all zilch nada, it’s that it isn’t obligated to do so, which means it’s based on case by case basis and the merits of fairness and reasonableness and the discretion of the court to award wasted money orders, but they are granted not they are never granted there’s no harm in asking. 

If you don’t ask you don’t get. 

Good luck.

VyEu

Unfortunately this is not the first story of something like this happening and it won't be the last. Sure you can ask the court for compensation but it's not likely at all.