Does a solicitor on record have to attend court?

HI Wikivorcers

this is a strange one and i just wanted some advice.

My partner and her ex were due to go to an FDR last thursday. He had dragged his heals and failed to comply with deadlines and orders (despite being the applicant)...it's been nearly a whole year of stress, time and money to follow a procedure she had no control over. it's probably cost us nearly £4k.

anyway, we knew we didn't want to do the FDR and he finally agreed to the only solution possible over the house. his solictor was on record with the court and drew up the Consent Order. three days before court, his solictor wrote to the court and said an agreement was in place, it was signed by both parties and asked for the hearing to be set aside as a 30 minutes Directions hearing to sign and seal the agreement.

despite having paid for a bundle (since we was ignoring a court order to do one), we cancelled our barrister and thankfully went in with a solicitor.

the ex had turned up without paperwork, position statements and the like and was determined to get this adjourned.

he also turned up without his solicitor.

the Judge asked our solictor to do his paperwork!!! it took an hour for her to do this and he was refusing to accept anything, even the consent order he had signed and drawn up with his solictor. he refused to contact his solictor and we had to do it.

To cut a long story short, the Judge got totally fed up with ex - asked him if he was in agreement, since we had conceded some issues (namely his illusive pension and savings which have never been disclosed), as well an indemnity clause on the house (which he's getting). he said he was and as he was about to sign, he started to query the judge on it. he also accused our solicitor of pressuring him to sign the consent order. the judge had had enough at this point when he said he was not in agreement and signed in his place.

So, you are asking...what's the issue?

my issue is this. his solicitor MUST have explained the consent order. she changed the hering from an FDR to a 30 minutes directions hearing. she was on record, and in my opinion should have turned up - with the paperwork, his position statement etc.

Our solictor did her work, and did her best to deal with the ex who was being vile in court. i'm pretty sure if he was being represented in court, at least the two solicitors might have been able to stop this dragging on for hours.

In my opinion her solicitor was highly unprofessional and she cost us at least 2 hours in time. so nearly £400.

my question is...should she have been there if she was on record?

my solicitor accepted a verbal apology from his solicitor, but she had a horrid time doing her work (with her unresponsive agressive swearing unco-operative client)...but to me, that's not good enough.

at the end of the day we were paying for our solicitor's time and not her clients.

i have a good mind to send the ex's solicitor a pretty stern letter about her unprofessionalism and a bill for 2 hours of our cost.

i'm sure someone here will tell me i can't do that, but i am livid about her behaviour and i am annoyed he has avoided costs and i have effectively picked up the tab.

what can i do if anything?

UANB (up and not broken!)

There may be a great deal you don`t know and may never know, his solicitor may have decided no longer to act for him,he may have de-instructed the solicitor, he may owe the solicitor money.

30 minute Directions hearing often turn into a longer hearing, in your case your solicitor should have asked for your costs but thats by the by now.

It cost you £400, to me that sounds like a small sum to bring it all to an end, the man sounds like a nasty piece of work.

he is.

but my question is, if he's not paid a bill, been asked not to go etc or any of the factors you suggested, surely she would take herself off the court record.

she was still on record when we were at court.

and it cost us £4k in total. that £400 was an extra unnecessary cost.

i'm glad we took our solicitor in else we'd never have got the consent order...the day cost us £800. and we had a signed consent order when we went in.

Yes his solicitor is recorded with court, and is until the solicitor or the client removes it, the problem is there are a million scenarios why this could be the case, for all you know he could have called his solicitor and asked her not to attend, the solicitor may have decided no longer to act on his behalf and not had time to remove her name with court.

Whatever the reason the horse has bolted and the gate is now closed, your solicitor would have had to ask for costs at the time, now its too late, if the judge had considered his actions in court and during the process obstructive the judge could have ordered costs, this did not happen.

I know this is as helpful as a dose of the flu but its just how it is, all that really matters is its over and you have a sealed order.

You could ask your solicitor why the applicants did not attend just so you know i suppose, its also worth thinking even if his solicitor did attend would it have helped, the man sounds unreasonable and angry to the point where the judge sealed the order without his consent, that in its self says it all, its an extreme action for a judge to take.