‘Court calamities’ (see [2008] Gazette, 10 July, 13) – plus ça change... About six years ago, a recently retired Circuit Judge included the following in his judgment on an application for committal:

‘The Courts Service is good at brochures, house magazines, performance indicators and mission statements; it hires lots of people to do these things. [Of] the staff it employs in the courts in clerical positions, some are either innumerate or illiterate, or both. At this court, which has no manager, orders all too frequently are issued, over which judges have no control, [and] which not only do not reflect normal English or what the judge said or wrote, but actually prejudice litigants and cause injustice. Since the fiasco on 1 October, in this case alone the court has issued two orders which I made on that date, both [stating] that the respondent was not present when I made them, when he was in fact in court. One of these describes me as a serving Circuit Judge, which I am not. The other describes me as a Deputy District Judge, which I have never been, and is backdated to 12 March this year when I was not here. A reference to the respondent’s presence is critical because it would record his hearing the orders made.’

The judge suggested to the applicant’s solicitor that he could complain to the users’ committee and to the group manager. Things do not seem to have changed.