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Utterly bonkers point. A trial date is fixed. In due course, Counsel is reserved and at an appropriate juncture the Brief is delivered. A fee is negotiated for a contested hearing. Everyone turns up at a "foreign" court and it settles. Some cases have to settle at the crunch (for some claimants). If the Defendant hasn't got his Pt 36 offer or money in Court he pays the day.
I remember when a listing officer at a small, now redundant, County Court listed five trials for the same day before the late Max Gosney, and we all turned up for a scrap! Max made the Lord Chancellor's Dept. Pay all the wasted costs.
It's a pity that Jimmy Pickles isn't around still. He didn't really like Solicitors, but he could see through stupidity very quickly. This matter wouldn't have got beyond him to put right!