Is this the most expensive missing comma in history? Probably, according to legal information provider CrimeLine, as it highlighted the recent Court of Appeal ruling in Buddington v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2006] EWCA Civ 280. We won't trouble you with the detail of the argument over paragraph 23(1) of schedule 2 to the Criminal Justice Act 2003 (Commencement No8 and Transitional and Saving Provisions) Order 2005, but suffice it to say that had a crucial comma been in place, 'the hearings before the Divisional Court and the Court of Appeal, and these lengthy judgments, [would have been] unnecessary', according to Lord Justice Judge, president of the Queen's Bench Division. He went on: 'Its omission almost certainly resulted from a third Homeric nod by the draftsman, in fairness to him, probably the result of pressure from the legislative cauldron.' For those of you lacking in your classical education, and there was a time when such people were not allowed in the profession, the phrase 'Homeric nod' is a jokey reference to continuity errors in the Greek poet's work, supposedly caused by him nodding off.