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When legal aid was scrapped in 2000 and conditional fee agreements (CFA's) allowed, the 'No Win - No Fee' law firms sprouted like dandelions in a perfect green lawn on a sunny summer day. Their proliferation has changed the nature of UK society and many feel a compensation culture worse than the one in America has taken root.

Though CFA's do allow poor people without access to funds to pursue personal injury claims in court, sometimes the CFA's do more harm than good.

Growing with the 'No Win - No Fee' solicitors were the accompanying claims management companies. These companies went in search of people with potential personal injury claims - in the worst-case scenarios they are 'the ambulance chasers'. Often potential plaintiffs are not aware that most of the staff at these types of agencies is not legally trained. What they do is identify the cases, organise what they need to, and then hand the cases over to a lawyer. Unscrupulous claims management companies often charge very high fees for their work and convince their clients to purchase expensive insurance to cover the legal costs of the defendant should the case fail. Though the CFA's state that the plaintiff will not pay if they loose, this insurance often leaves plaintiffs in debt after the case. Also, if they do win the case, the lawyers for the plaintiff in CFA's can charge higher than normal rates, sometimes as high as double their normal rate, the amount of which will be deducted from any compensation the plaintiff might win. After all of this, there have been cases whereby even when the plaintiff won the case they found themselves in debt because of having gone to court.

The Compensation Bill passed by government last November has addressed some of the abuses of the claims management companies. Now only qualified people are allowed to run these companies. The bill was passed as an attempt to protect the vulnerable client.

The government has also produced a guide entitled "Claiming Compensation" to educate people about what 'No Win - No Fee' actually means. Many people believe that if they win they don't pay anything, when in fact that is not the case. Such issues are explained in this pamphlet. The Advice Service guide in the series says, "The reality is that compensation claims can be stressful, highly costly, and take several years to complete."

In the UK, 2.5 million people suffer accidents every year. These accidents occur at work, in traffic, at the hospital or during a crime.