James Morton’s account of troublesome litigants-in-person struck a chord with His Honour Timothy Lawrence, who wrote to tell us: ‘It reminded me of the kindly way my old partner, His Honour Judge ‘Bill’ Cox, dealt with the wild-eyed potential litigant who would come in with carrier bags full of pieces of paper and a mission to sue the Queen, the Prime Minister and probably the Lord Chancellor as well.

'He would listen patiently for about 10 minutes, then politely intervene to say this very important piece of litigation is clearly going to overturn the whole of the government, but everybody involved will suggest the client must be quite mad.

'So if the client will get a letter from his GP to say he is quite sane, then "we will at once issue proceedings in this most significant case".

'Invariably, the litigant left, never to be seen again.’

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