It's little wonder that no win no fee solicitors are so popular

I was at a parents evening yesterday which was, on the whole, a really pleasant and rewarding activity. I speaking to a mum of a former pupil in one of the gaps between appointments she told me that her son, who used to be in my class, had broken his arm. When I asked her how this injury had occurred she told me he had fallen in a hole left by the council when they removed a tree. She had told the council on about four separate occasions that this hole was dangerous, but they said she would have to wait to get it filled in. With the evenings getting darker, he returned from a friend's house nearby and slipped in to the hole, which although not deep, caused him to fall and he landed on his wrist, breaking it in the process.

Having got nowhere in this matter for some months before the accident, she had subsequently contacted one of the Labour councillors who all of a sudden became very interested and was very keen to help, particularly when the words "no win, no fee" were mentioned and, you've guessed it, the hole has now been filled in .

The mother does not want to sue as she does not like these "no win no fee" companies and the whole compensation culture. But when she has done everything possible to warn the council and they have not cared one jot about it, shouldn't she, and her son, be entitles to some compensation for the council's lack of care ?