When a judge feels it necessary to criticise the Crown Prosecution Service, it is usually because something has gone badly wrong.

So Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC’s comments regarding its handling of a case involving the death of a motorcyclist should make people sit up and take notice.

The background is that a man had been due to stand trial accused of causing death by careless driving after the van he was driving was in collision with a motorbike.

The rider suffered a severe leg injury and died of a heart attack some days later, following hospital treatment.

The case collapsed after Judge Hall ruled last-ditch evidence from a heart expert presented by the CPS was inadmissible, and he recorded a formal not-guilty verdict.

He criticised the CPS for not getting this evidence together sooner, adding: “How can they have treated the deceased’s family, never mind the defendant, with such an inappropriate attitude?”

In this one statement, he has shown his deep understanding of an important point; that cases are about real people – not just legal arguments – and they must not be forgotten.

This episode may well have made a terrible time for the family of the deceased even worse – though they have behaved with commendable dignity throughout.

It must also have been a dreadful ordeal for the accused, whom the judge described as an ordinary man of impeccable character who was absolutely sober and not in a hurry at the time of the accident.

Both parties deserved better.