Taxpayers foot £350k legal bill for Muslim pubic hair battle Mr Justice Roderic Wood said: "I thus remain utterly baffled by the course this litigation has taken, and perplexed by this lack of clarity in their case. Obtaining a 10-day slot of a High Court Judge's time is not easy, for there are many competing cases of equal if not greater urgency than this one. The local authority involved had incurred costs of £138,000, the couple of £82,000 and the official solicitor, appearing for ED, of £130,000 - with the taxpayer footing the entire bill. "This is an astonishing sum of money," the judge said. Particularly when one considers...that the ultimate resolution is that the parents have, ultimately with their own 'consent', agreed to orders which dismiss any hope of ED coming to live with them and a significant reduction in her contact with them. In the lead up to a final hearing, fixed for this month, "a great morass" of evidence was prepared, including 740 pages of witness statements, 300 pages of expert evidence as well as other documents, the judge added. Unchallenged evidence from a cultural expert observed that "whilst there was a duty to remove pubic hair - both for religious and cultural reasons - there is an exemption for those incapacitated such as ED."