A hearing on contact and residence for Ms A's children had to be postponed for four months because HMCTS did not send the court papers to the judge. HMCTS refused to pay Ms A's legal costs for the postponed hearing.
What happened
The final hearing to decide contact and residence for Ms A's children was transferred to another court, but HMCTS did not send the court papers to the judge and the hearing was rescheduled. Ms A asked HMCTS to reimburse her for her costs in hiring a barrister and solicitor for the postponed hearing. HMCTS agreed it had made a mistake in not sending the court papers to the judge, but did not accept that that was the reason for the hearing being postponed. It offered Ms A £100. She was unhappy with HMCTS's response.
What we found
The hearing was postponed because HMCTS had not sent the papers to the judge. HMCTS could not track the court papers so no one knew where they were. Ms A had appointed a barrister to represent her for what she believed was going to be the final hearing, but, through no fault of her own, had to engage the barrister again for the final hearing, so her costs for the postponed hearing were wasted. HMCTS did not provide a good service in responding to Ms A's complaint.
Putting it right
HMCTS apologised to Ms A and reimbursed her wasted legal costs of around £2,800. It also paid her £300 compensation for the stress and inconvenience it had caused her. HMCTS reviewed the lessons learnt from this complaint with a view to improving the tracking of case bundles so that there is a clear audit trail.
HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS)
UK
Did not apologise properly or do enough to put things right
Apology
Compensation for financial loss
Compensation for non-financial loss
Recommendation to learn lessons or draw up an action plan