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The combined estimated value of this litigation was (a rather ambitious) £100 million. 20 test cases were selected. In 19 out of the 20 test cases no medical evidence was provided. In two of the cases Mr Justice Jay found that signatures were forged.

In his own words '“Many months later – it is unclear exactly how and why - lawyers arrived on the scene and sensed the opening of a business opportunity...It proved not very difficult to recruit willing claimants to the group, not least because there was a lot of ill-feeling in the neighbourhood directed towards Sonae, and many people genuinely believed that they must have been harmed in some way...The legal process preyed on human susceptibility and vulnerability, and the rest is history...The claimants have lost no money, but their expectations, always unsustainable in my view, have not been fulfilled. I regret that their hopes were raised in the first place”

If solicitors have any doubt as to why the public perception of the legal industry (solicitors in particular) can at times appear so low they need only read the above.