Last month Obiter reported Berkshire solicitor Hilary Messer’s recollection of misunderstanding a female judge’s enquiry about the perfume she was wearing. Roberta Tish, a consultant with London firm Blacklaws Davis, reckons Messer was lucky. ‘How times have changed,’ Tish writes. ‘In the very early sixties, I was appearing before a Master at the Royal Courts of Justice and, unusually for that time, my opponent was also a woman. As we approached the bench, he started to sniff the air. Then to the amusement of the rest of the representatives – all male – demanded to know who was wearing perfume. It was my opponent, who was brusquely told to get out (to put it nicely), wash off the perfume and not reappear until she had done so. I think Hilary Messer got off lightly.’

But as James Davies, of Thompsons solicitors, reminds us, it wasn’t just female colleagues who used to fall foul of judges’ tempers. ‘One senior colleague tells of a barrister appearing in open court, bewigged and gowned before a very particular judge. Having made a few words of opening in his application, he is interrupted by the judge. "Mr Smith, I'm afraid I can't hear you." Slightly bemused, Smith begins again, this time in a booming voice that reverberates around the courtroom. Again, the judge interrupts. "Mr Smith, I'm afraid I really cannot hear you." Smith tries for a third time, his submissions verging on a shout. The judge hauls him up short again. "Mr Smith, forgive me. I cannot possibly hear you. You are wearing a brown suit, which is wholly improper in Her Majesty's courts."

Any more judicial gems out there?