Mr. James Coghlan:

To illustrate the point, Mr. McDonnell did not write this report off the top of his head. He has worked closely with members. A short paragraph on page 7 of ISME's submission states its members advise it that one of the most important considerations before a case is defended in court is the name of the trial judge. It also states that if it is one of a small number of judges with pro-plaintiff renown, businesses will instruct counsel to settle, or counsel will instruct them to settle, irrespective of the merits and strength of the defence. I had an experience as an operator, again going back to the Circuit Court limit of €60,000, whereby, having won decisively a case in the Circuit Court in which the judge was scathing with respect to the plaintiff in summing up the case and awarding us costs and the case effectively, within a matter of days we received a phone call from the solicitor acting for the plaintiff. Committee members know what I am going to say. His words were that he needed to earn his fees out of this so he was going to appeal it to the High Court unless he was paid a certain amount of money. That cost me my excess. Why would I not want to go to the High Court to defend a case that I clearly won hands down? I go back to the paragraph I read from ISME's submission.