Solicitor vs Litgant in Person

If you can afford I'd definitely stick with a solicitor. I've been a litigant in person for the past 2 years, never used a solicitor and it's an absolute nightmare. There is no doubt that you do definitely get treated differently by the courts if you don't have a solicitor. You will have to do everything yourself, manage bundles, make sure the opposing solicitor sends you everything they are legally supposed to (trust me, they won't unless you chase them), court staff will give you the runaround and make you wait weeks to receive an order sometimes over a month, it can take days and days for them to reply to your emails and when all you want is to be with your child those days seem like a lifetime of waiting, and you'll be emailing the courts alot during the process. Before each hearing there is an hour long meeting between the judge, Cafcass and both solicitors to discuss the best course of action for the upcoming hearing, if you don't have a solicitor you are completely left out of that meeting. In my opinion there is no place for solicitors in a child's life, they do nothing but attack you and delay, delay, delay, yet if you don't have one you are completely left out of everything that is happening and you're a simpleton so you don't know any better and you're treated that way. You will go to hearings with no clue of what is about to happen or what is about to be thrown at you because every order is the same and doesn't actually give you any details about the upcoming hearing. I recently had the final hearing and had to sit through 45 minutes of questions from her solicitor just attacking me non-stop, I had no idea that I would be asked any questions or they would present any of the evidence they presented because it doesn't tell you that in any court order but if I had a solicitor then they could of warned me about what was going to happen. The system unfortunately is tailored towards those with a solicitor.

If you have the money definitely use solicitors and barristers. I was quoted 30k for all the 3 hearings so I decided to be litigant in person. When you hire a solicitor, I would recommend that they are members of Resolution.  Resolution solicitors try to find a solution and not extend the case for their own benefit.

if you must use a lawyer, would recommend taking the direct access route and pay a fixed fee to hire a barrister for each hearing: https://www.directaccessportal.co.uk/search/1/barrister

I don't think I could have managed without a lawyer the first time round. When I had to return, I knew what to expect so just self represented. was pretty straight forward. I was going to hire a barrister for 3rd/final hearing to be on safe side. but it didn't happen as 2nd hearing got converted into final hearing.