The Ambulance Chaser

Insurance companies exist to help you. Changes to insurance law are only about making things fairer.

Politicians are competent, hard working and devoted to public service. If you believe any of the above, you've never lived in the real world.

At least, that's the view of Christopher Blake. Of course, Chris is what people call an ambulance chaser, so what would he know? Too much, according to the Bar Association, which has just struck him off. Far too little, according to his girlfriend, who has delivered her own judgment on him, in the most painfully obvious way, on New Year's Eve.

After twelve years as a human rights lawyer, Chris is now bankrupt, and the only work he can get is giving pro bono advice at a legal centre on how to sue a cat. This isn't paying his creditors, but the presence of a colleague who looks more like Catherine Zeta-Jones than any other socialist he's ever met, almost makes up for this. In desperation, Chris takes on a job with South Pacific Group Insurance, the world's fastest-growing insurance company, and a place where injured plaintiffs should just stop moaning and die. Which, Chris notices, they happen to be doing at an alarming rate. Chris decides to conduct his own investigation into South Pacific, and The Ambulance Chaser becomes the brilliantly funny tale of what can happen when a corporation breaches capitalism's golden rule - never employ an honest lawyer.