urgent help please, solicitor and going to court

hi can anyone please help me
My partner is due family court next week, he has been trying for 3 years to get family issues sorted from his previous relationship. He has got the same solicitor representing him through the whole process, they are now finally going to court to get everything sorted. But today we received a letter from his solicitor saying if he doesn't pay his bill they wont be representing him in court next week. There was never anything put down on paper to say when the payment was due and we had the understanding that we pay when its all over and settled. The solicitor has been asking for some payment a few weeks ago and we said we will do what we can, but the situation is that we cant do anything at the moment. He is expecting money from his joint house he has got with his ex and they know this but still put us in this situation. So now he has court but wont have a solicitor to represent him. What can he do, and what is the right and wrong in this case. please help. court is next friday nov 13th.

Best thing to do is make an appointment and call in to the solicitor and talk it through in person.

It's not out of the blue if they asked you for payment a few weeks ago.

A solicitor is running a business and cannot be expected to work for nothing.

However, I have been in this situation many times, if a client genuinely made an effort to pay or I knew they really couldn't but talked to me in person and we could put in place some genuine scheme of arrangement to pay at a later date, then I would go and represent them on the day. In fact I've often represented people where they were stuck and I knew they wouldnt be able to pay me where they are genuine. But only if they make the effort to talk to me.

Yes we will go in to see them but my partner has just recently started a new job and can't take to much time off at the moment, and they didn't give us very much time notice to organize time off to go to their office. And there has been meetings about this before when we told them we are in a situation where we cant pay at the moment and we told them that from the start as well. I think its a bit unfair to just throw this at us now with no agreement to do so, and from surfing the net I understand that they should have put down i writing from the start an estimated cost and a pay plan wich was never done. Can they refuse to represent him in court at this late stage?