Actually, the court will probably waste your whole day, end up not calling you to the witness box, then demand your presence the next day.

Pretty cool for employees, decidedly chilly for their employers, horrible for the self-employed, and an appalling prospect for contractors who must, in theory, pay to replace their own labour and services on any day that they fail to fulfil their contractual obligations. Mostly they make up the hours, and hope that their unreliability doesn't cost them at the next renewal.

All this to watch some ludicrous costumed ceremony, or a brief display of ignorance before a magistrate, culminating in a fine a fraction of the value of your time and your employers' business, a community service order which will not in all probability be enforced, or a total fumble by the Crown Prosecution service.

Assuming, of course, that you don't live in one of the cities that has effectively decriminalised killing cyclists and pedestrians. The only dangerous thing that you can do in a car is drink: that can cost you your license and you may indeed go to prison. But sentences for sober maim and mayhem reach the front pages because they are so rare: their only deterrent value is to warn the prudent that there's no such thing as cheap legal advice.