The complaints of Graeme Hydari regarding the state of the criminal courts in which he practises are reflected in the state of certain county courts, and in particular the Central London County Court.

Just some of the problems that my firm has encountered recently are: lost files; a hearing date that had been fixed for weeks being cancelled without any notice to the parties; two different hearing dates being provided for the same matter; and application notices and relevant correspondence being ignored.

The telephone is not answered except on the rarest of occasions and the fax is constantly engaged during office hours.

Our representative, on a recent unsuccessful visit to complain that a date for the hearing of an application was urgently awaited, was informed that the target date for the Central London County Court for the hearing of multi-track claims is 52 weeks from the date of the allocation questionnaire.

The judges plainly do everything that they can to assist, but their ability to do so is restricted by the lack of court staff.

I was recently informed by a district judge that the situation, while bad before the recent cuts, is now becoming impossible.

Having regard to the extended jurisdiction of county courts and the ever increasing workload, the system is failing in this vital area of the administration of justice.

It is against this background that one reads in the printed listing policy that ‘Her Majesty’s Courts Service will not be responsible for any costs incurred [due to] any departure from listing policy due to maladministration’.

Michael D Freeman, Grower Freeman, London NW1