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It's ironic that this case is going through the courts at the same time as the Haven Insurance one. It's difficult to see how the average claimant would be much worse off - if at all - dealing directly with the insurer than going through a firm like this, which is all too typical of PI factory firms. A firm which, incidentally, despite having just one director and 7 other solicitors, managed to turn over nearly £14m in 2016.

This - and all too many other cases that have been reported recently - illustrates what a racket low value PI claims are. £250 an hour for dealing with some junk claim where liability's been admitted? What planet are they on?

The argument that the client has signed up to being ripped off and therefore deserves to be screwed holds no water at all. The solicitor presenting the CFA to them has far too much of a vested interest to give them anything like an independent assessment of the costs and just wants the signature.

Most of the clients involved in this sort of claim have no knowledge of the law or the CPR at all, neither do they have the intellectual capacity to judge whether what they're being offered is a fair deal or not. They will simply sign where they're told to sign.

And getting nearly £1,800 for processing such pathetic little claims is completely barmy. How on earth is the work carried out in such a case worth anything like that sum? If the clients were actually having to pay it themselves every single one of these PI firms would be out of business within a week.

The truth is that this sort of claim shouldn't be dealt with by solicitors at all, as they are massively over-qualified (or would be if any of them actually handled these claims) and massively too expensive for what's needed.

It's like paying a tradesman £250 an hour to paint your front room or fix your central heating - though actually both of those tradesmen are probably a lot more skilled (and a lot more use) than the average PI factory claims handler.

The spectacle of what used to be a respected profession defending the indefensible is very depressing.