I acted for Yvonne Cole in the case brought against several defendants relating to a personal injury sustained whilst walking across a village green (see [2007] Gazette, 17 May, 26).


After the verdict, the national press jumped to the wrong conclusion that the claimant was part of a detestable money-grubbing claimant culture that is apparently gripping this sceptred isle with its patchwork quilt of rural lanes and village greens. Nothing could be further from the truth.



Mrs Cole was crossing the village green when she put her foot in a man-made hole that was overgrown with grass and was not guarded in any way. Her badly-broken leg took a long time to recover. During that time, she found that she could no longer carry on her business and closed it down.



We are Mrs Cole's long-standing solicitors, not ambulance chasers. We took the matter on because it seemed to us that there was a breached duty of care and/or breach of statutory duty in the matter.



We undertook the work on a 'no win, no fee' basis, but our client was required to put at risk an after-the-event insurance premium in the sum of £25,000. We took this on where no claims factory would have even looked at it; claims factories will not look at anything other than a racing certainty.



I write simply to say that this case has no bearing on the alleged 'compensation culture' but was straightforward and measured litigation for a deserving client who had suffered substantial loss. Both I and my client find it offensive to be accused, in an ill-considered way, of base motives inspired by greed.



By the way, when I qualified in 1975, no one told me I would eventually become a book-maker!



Adrian Carter, Cooper Carter Claremont Ltd, Hailsham, East Sussex