Re: ‘Woolf lambasts failures in CPR’ (see [2009] Gazette, 22 October, 1). I have steered clear of litigation for most of my 40 years in practice, but I did advise one party on the pension aspects of a financial settlement following divorce. It was one of the most time-wasting jobs I have done, albeit quite profitable. The litigation lawyers would do nothing without running back to court for an order or to counsel for advice. The court, when its bureaucracy got the right papers in the right place, interfered in matters which it barely understood. Case management, if my experience is typical, is no more than a gravy train generating mounds of paper (in this electronic age!) and hour upon hour of billable time spent on complying with the procedure instead of dealing with the issue. Had it been a commercial negotiation, it would have been resolved in a quarter of the time and at very much less expense.

Roderick Ramage, Stafford