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I know they work hard, just as hard as everyone else involved in the law. It’s nonsense to suggest their day starts at 10am and finishes at 4pm. As urban myths go, a judicial six hour day is up there with solicitors ‘knock off to the golf course after lunch on Fridays’.

Justice in E&W is largely unaffordable. Two reasons why, both largely to do with judicial case management:

a) Front loading – not all bad, but we still have to do a lot of unnecessary things in order to get to trial.

b) Budgetting. It may provide some protection to the losing party and may have pleased the insurance industry. But it’s little comfort for the client who has to pay you to do it with a 50% chance of it being a waste of money. Moreover, half the work you do preparing a case is unforseeable and cannot be fitted into the various categories. The client has to pay for the unforseeble work in any event.

We old codgers used to get results just as quickly pre-1999 and at a fraction of the cost.

Time to take a few steps backwards.