In the latest instance of things being tinkered with for no apparent reason or benefit, the single list of all the court cases on at the Rolls Building in London has been replaced with 13 separate lists. I'm struggling to work out why this is a good idea

A prosecutor tells me with supreme confidence that he's unaware of a single barrister who would provide a written note on sentencing to members of the media He's just spent the morning saying in court 'I refer your honour to paragraph X of my note, which I won't read aloud'

Farewell to Cec Wright who played in the leagues until 85 — and to an era of giants at tiny clubs https://t.co/JlacyXmNMy

At #Sheffield youth court with four other journos waiting to be admitted to a youth court hearing in relation to violent disorder, which we are entitled by law to attend. Been told we need to ‘make an application’. This is incorrect @HMCTSgovuk @kirkkorner @MarkHannaMedia

Also, in a world where tactics becoming homogenised, and academies produce a lot of technical but… pressing drones, Georgia sought to make distinctive footballers that fit in with their culture (especially Tblisi v LFC/West Ham 40 years ago) You can see https://t.co/xJPes5zK0M

Brilliant news - well done to all @PA on achieving recognition

It is so, so frustrating to have to deal with this as a reporter, let alone a lawyer or - most importantly of all - a party to a case. This open justice board has a lot to do... 13/13

Then there's the tendency of some judges to impose reporting restrictions as a matter of course, first appearances not being listed at magistrates' courts, the single justice procedure (ask @kirkkorner about that) and many other problems. 12/x

And it's not only journalists not getting judgments: last week I was speaking to a lawyer who hadn't yet been sent the High Court's decision on their clients' case - though it had been published online without them being told. 11/x

Unfortunately, the judgment was not on the court list - so the first I heard of it was from a PR more than an hour after it was supposedly "handed down". It took another hour for it to be published so we could actually run a story on the decision. This happens repeatedly. 10/x

The issues with getting access to documents from the filing system are just the tip of the iceberg. Last month, the High Court decided that c.$10bn of claims over planes stuck in Russia should be heard in London, not Moscow: https://t.co/OrPjZ31DJ4 9/x

When you can go to jail and face an unlimited fine for contempt of court for breaching a court order, you should not have to pay £11 to know what that order says. 8/x

That £11 charge means it would cost £132 to get a full set of claims and defences in all six cases against ANL. That, on any view, is obscene. What's more, the reporting restrictions were changed on Friday. How? Well, you have to pay £11 for that too... 7/x

That's before you get to the exorbitant cost: each document, even a single page pdf, costs £11. If you are paying £11 for a single electronic document, I really don't think it's too much to ask that it is provided that same day. At this point, I'd take this week. 6/x

But for some reason those documents still have to be approved by someone in the court office ticking a box. The last time I called this particular court office about a different case (after 15+ mins on hold) I was told the average wait for approval was 14 days. 5/x

It is, I'm guessing, because no one has copies of ANL's defence or the unredacted claims - I certainly don't. Why not? Because the system is not fit for purpose: only documents which can be made publicly available show up on the filing system as available to order... 4/x

Filing the defence also meant that reporting restrictions on identifying journalists named in the claims were lifted: https://t.co/LDZn00ewTk You may wonder why nothing has yet been published from ANL's defence in a case that has naturally attracted *a lot* of coverage. 3/x

Especially so as open justice has taken a battering recently and in my experience it is getting worse, not better. For example, on Friday the publisher of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday (ANL) filed its written defence to claims brought by Prince Harry and others... 2/x

Lady Carr, head of the judiciary in England and Wales, today announced the terms of reference for the Transparency and Open Justice Board. This is welcome, but it does not fill me with hope that there are no journalists or editors on the board (yet): https://t.co/61WzC7FXEo 1/x