Barrister charged fee for the withdrawn hearing

My FH was planned for December, but 2 days before the court withdrew the case because of an emergency children case fixed for that day.
My FH is not so far away now.
My barrister has charged me 50% of her fee for the withdrawn hearing, i.e. I now have to pay her full fee in March + 0.5 fee for nothing.
0.5 of her fee is an enormous sum for me, I’m in deep debt already. I’ve negotiated to put it off till April, but still not sure where I will take this sum.
I gather there’s no way I can claim this amount from the court. Obviously, I cannot make a row with my barrister now that the FH is a few weeks away.
Is there any law that protects clients in such cases when the cases are withdrawn by court at a short notice? Am I the only one who chose a barrister who operates on these terms and conditions (my solicitor did not inform me about these when suggesting this barrister)?

Barristers begin to incur fees as soon as you instruct them. There is a lot of preparation involved in attending a hearing. It is also usual for a barrister to charge their ''brief'' fee even if the hearing does not proceed.

However, it might be possible to negotiate a lower fee for the repeated hearing on the basis that the preparation has been done - only an update plus the hearing time is required.

As for making a claim against the court service - no dice I''m afraid. The lack of course resources is the problem and adding to the problem by paying compensation to people for lost costs is against public policy. I tried to make such a claim some years back - the maladministration committee was deeply unhelpful and said there was no claim to answer.


Charles

I would bump my old topic.
I''ve read T&C my barrister acted for me, as well as Contractual T&C on the chamber site. Nothing is said there about refresher fee.
I wonder if this could be a reason for complain against charged refresher fee to the Chambers first, and then to the Legal Ombudsman?
I wrote to the court, they refused to compensate, just as Charles said. I then wrote to the Senior Clerk at Court, but no reply for 3 months. I am taking it to MP if I do not get an answer.
If the court does not help - I do not see why I had to pay that money (which I did pay in the end!) to the barrister if it is not stipulated in their T&C? The ineffective hearing was not my fault, and there was only 3 months gap, for which 1/2 of the agreed fee was charged.
Has anyone been successful in arguing fees for ineffective hearings?

thank you

The barrister is entitled to be remunerated for work done.

In your case the agreed fee was for the March hearing but only half that fee was charged as the barrister had started preparing for the hearing but did not attend the hearing.

The case went back to court at which point the barrister would have to begin preparation again then attend the hearing hence the full fee originally agreed becomes payable.

You might say that the barrister is charging twice for the preparation which is true but barristers review papers close to the hearing and they retain much of the detail in their head and are then able to negotiate or advocate on your behalf. Once the hearing has passed or it is adjourned the information gets dumped and is replaced by the next job.

Do you have a copy of the barristers contract to hand? If you have a copy of the standard terms from 2012, section 11.3 is relevant if no fee was agreed.

www.barcouncil.org.uk/media/161048/the__...sed_persons_2012.pdf

Charles