As any reader of our Good Practice page will know, delays and missing deadlines are regular failings of some solicitors.

And we have had first-hand experience of this in recent times, as responses to our legal aid survey continued to come in days, weeks and even months after the January deadline.

But a firm in Cheshire, which we shall do the service of not naming, has broken all records by replying to the survey this week - and not the 2003 survey, but last year's survey, the closing date for which was 4 January 2002.

For what it's worth, the firm had left legal aid because of the paperwork and pay.

And let's face it, coping with paperwork does not seem to be this practice's strong suit.