Barrister Left me in the Lurch

H

Humbird

Guest
Hello, I am due in court tomororw (Tues) for a very serious family law matter. I got word at 5.30pm today that my barrister has walked away from my case and won't be there because she will be doing a high court case instead (i.e. more money for her than a circuit court case like mine). This is devestating for my case that I have no barrister in the morning to attend my case. What are my options?
It is a Motion Hearing, and the matter is urgent, so I am not sure if an adjournment is possible, especially when courts are due to close end July.
Please please please can anybody tell me what my options are? I don't trust that my solicitor will tell me the truth when we meet in the morning about what my options are.
My positoin is that I don't have legal representation in a barrister my case is seriously damaged. WIll a judge accept this, or will he think "tough luck, next time chose a more reliable barrister".
Please advise.
Thanks ... am desperate.
Humbird
 
A barrister withdrawing from a case is a very, very serious matter, particularly in circumstances such as you've outlined. There are ethical guidelines and that would seem to be a clear breach of them. They're set out in the [broken link removed] link in the page I've linked to (Word document). there's also a complaints procedure.

First thing in the morning find out if the version you've presented is what's actually happening - there's a fair chance that what is happening is that the barrister is caught in an ongoing High Court action and can't get away from that to deal with your case. This is common enough as most barristers do not just work for one client at a time - the barrister has ethical responsibilities to that client too, and sometimes court dates will conflict, even with the best of intentions.

In such a situation, the barrister may be able to get away from the High Court action for a while to deal with yours, or may be able to get the hearing held over to "second calling" (basically being put back to the queue until later in the day) and deal with it later, or more likely the solicitor will explain that the barrister is unavoidably detained in another court for an ongoing trial, and seek an adjournment. The judge will agree to this unless to adjourn would make the motion pointless, for example, if it was an injunction to stop someone from doing something they are about to do. If the judge were to refuse, the solicitor does have a right of hearing and can run the case if necessary.

Don't worry too much - contrary to popular belief, judges generally want to see justice done, and will not prejudice a party to a case if they can avoid it. The motion will most likely be adjourned to a later date.
 
Hi, thank you so much for the info with what my options are and what might have happened in my case, which I'll be only able to clarify when I meet my sol in the morning before court. I'll see what I can do in the short time frame that we have. The matter must be resolved by this friday, otherwise its too late, so even if we can get it adjourned a day or so, we might be ok.
Thanks again.
Humbird
 
J26, I should have asked .... if indeed my barrister has walked away from my case and is not just detained in another court, what are my options? My sol indicated that we should get another barrister, but my case is ongoing for 3 years and no barrister can absorb all the issues and documentation before a hearing this morning, and indeed by the end of the week (after which time the case would be pointless). So if that is the case, what are my options since I would have barrister now and nobody who would be up to speed on my case by Friday?
Humbird.
 
You need to get another barrister. You can instruct your new barrister to seek an adjournment because your preferred barrister is not available. However, you need to be ready to go on if the Judge thinks it is not fair to the other party to delay matters. If you cannot afford to delay yourself then you need a good barrister to pick it up and do the best they can. This situation is common and is one of the great injustices of the court systems and the uncertainty surrounding Court dates.
 
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