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I have some sympathy for the poor bloody infantry in these firms, but none at all for their owners. For years low end PI claims provided an absurdly lucrative living for solicitors who knew how to work the system. The work was generally low skill, and mostly done by unqualified people, and was remunerated at ridiculously high rates for what was actually involved – the equivalent of City rates for work that was done by kids with one GCSE.

It's a scandal that this situation was as allowed to continue for as long as it did. It led to hundreds of dodgy firms being set up to cash in on what were largely fraudulent - or at least grossly exaggerated - claims.

So it's a case of better late than never, but allied to the crazy decision to allow solicitors to incorporate the main losers are the creditors of these firms, who are owed millions of pounds.

How can this company have possibly run up a shortfall of £6.4m without the directors knowing that they were trading insolvently? This represented 150% of their best year’s turnover - not profits. Why did they not cease trading long before this level of shortfall was reached?

When solicitors used to be professional people who paid their debts this would never have happened.

As usual, the only ones to come out of this with anything will be the insolvency practitioners, who will be rubbing their hands over another nice, juicy corpse to feast on.

It's an appropriate metaphor for an area of work that used to be respectable, if dull, but turned into a cess pit of corruption.