Are we becoming a litigious society, dominated by a ‘compensation culture’? Newspapers are continually reporting claims made by individuals that at first may seem quite trivial and not warranting legal intervention. Recent reported claims, which some would argue typify a compensation culture, include a teacher who won $55,000 after slipping on a chip, and the parents of a Girl Guide who sued after she was burnt by fat spitting from a sausage. Aggrieved parties may have been spurred on by the rise of ‘personal injury advisers’ who offer to take on a claim at no risk to the claimant. They have sometimes been referred to as ‘ambulance chasers’ for the way they pursue injured parties, making them aware of the possibility of claiming for a loss or injury, which they may otherwise have written off in their minds as just bad luck. If their claim is rejected by the court, the claimant will pay nothing. If it succeeds, they pay the company handling the claim a percentage of the damages awarded. Such companies have been accused of unrealistically raising clients’ expectations of damages, and looking for confrontation where alternative methods of reconciliation may be more effective. The business practices of some companies have been criticized, and one company, the Accident Group, went out of business in 2004 after accumulating large debts and failing to deliver promised benefits to many of its customers.