Following the cases of Myatt and Garrett (see [2006] Gazette, 27 July, 4), it is clear that the insurance companies have had something of a windfall. They will have made a provision for costs they no longer have to pay.



While one can sympathise with the solicitors who are not getting paid for work they have properly done, now is a good time to look at damages for personal injury.



Although the Court of Appeal grasped the nettle on larger damage claims, the quantum of smaller claims is often so poor that the fee counsel wants for the day in court can be greater than the damages ultimately awarded. This is notwithstanding that a claimant may have had a mild disability for a period of months, or even years.



It cannot be right that counsel feels he or she is worth more for a day's effort than a claimant gets for an injury that might have made their lives miserable.



Now is the time, with all this excess money sloshing around in the insurers' coffers, for the Court of Appeal to grasp the nettle and, at the very least, double the quantum of general damages in claims up to £15,000, and thereafter increase them on a lower sliding scale.



Nigel Anderson, Anderson Partnership, Chesterfield