Picking up the tab

The lengths that the Lord Chancellor's Department will go to increase revenue are boundless.

My firm deals with large-volume mortgage possession cases and dutifully pays the court fee of 120 per case.

Most courts list four cases every 15 minutes which equates to an hourly rate for district judge time of 1,920.

This would not be too bad, after all only the poor mortgager, who by the very nature of the proceedings is in dire financial straits, has to pick up the tab.

Not unexpectedly some borrowers reduce or clear the arrears prior to the hearing.

I have found on an increasing number of occasions that when we write to the court asking the district judge 'at the hearing of the case' to adjourn the proceedings generally, we then receive a request from the court for an additional fee of 25 for adjourning the hearing.

We have on numerous occasions written back to the individual court pointing out that we do not require an adjournment prior to the hearing, we only require an adjournment at the hearing.

Notwithstanding this, many courts are now threatening to strike out our action if we do not pay the adjournment fee by a specific date.

We think that this is an outrageous abuse of the court process, to say nothing of a ridiculous waste of valuable court time.

If the Lord Chancellor's Department had the common sense to realise that by the very nature of the adjournment, the original hearing date is freed up to be 'sold' to another court user, it could increase the fee-earning capacity of the district judge even more.

The LCD could then even list some hearings sooner, thereby providing a better service to court users.

G T Parkinson, Curtis & Parkinson, Nottingham