YOUR criticism of the number of hours judges spend in court in Hongkong is entirely misconceived. Here in Hongkong the litigant comes first. When I was Chairman of the Bar in the UK, I did my best to persuade the Lord Chancellor to follow the Hongkong system. In the UK the cases are fixed for hearing for the convenience of the judges - the rule is that a judge must never be kept waiting. The result is that every day in the UK, thousands of litigants, witnesses and lawyers wait around at the court sometimes for days waiting for their case to be heard. Not only is this inconvenient, it costs litigants and the state massive sums of money every day. Judges have a great deal of work to do out of court, such as preparing and writing judgements. Hongkong is extremely fortunate in having a legal system which puts the citizen first. ANTHONY SCRIVENER, QC Queensway