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Civil procedure seems to be gradually becoming more and more insane. Like most civil servants, the Civil Procedure Rule Committee are dazzled by technology, but haven't a clue how it all works. The silver-tongued IT salesmen can run rings round them, as the poor duffers are terrified of seeming out of touch, so in a fog of incomprehension sign whatever's put in front of them.

This is why we have had so many public sector IT fiascos. No public sector worker ever gets sacked for signing the taxpayer up to a monumental waste of money, but if they express so much as a word of criticism they are dismissed as Luddites, and overlooked in the next promotion round, and if they really stand up to the fools who are flogging this rubbish it's farewell easy life and lucrative pension.

If they have to introduce this absurdly complex and expensive system it should be limited to cases where the costs for both sides exceed £100k, thereby leaving the rest of us to carry on using the existing system, which, although pretty awful, is at least awfulness we've learned to live with.