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Litigants in the County and Family Courts are, in effect, being taxed so that the government can subsidise criminal justice and the tribunals. The fees would seem less of an imposition if the service provided by court service had not deteriorated so badly. There are chronic delays - it can take a month for an order to be drawn - and mistakes, often attributable to the loss of experienced staff and employment of agency-workers, are frequent. One can only wonder how long litigants will be willing to pay and why more hasn't been done by the Law Society and Bar Council to bring the shortcomings in the civil courts to the attention of the government and public.