Columnist Ruth Wishart reflects on the local churches who have signed up for Doors Open Days in Helensburgh this year - and on the consequences of our ambulance-chasing culture...

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Fascinating to see the number of local kirks listed for this year’s Doors Open Days event – the annual invitation for the public to take a gander at buildings whose doors they are never usually allowed to darken.

But the churches are in rather a different position from many of the other premises who take the opportunity to show off their architecture. After all most of them are open at least one day a week on a year round basis.

Could it be that what they are suggesting is not a once in a blue moon chance to gaze at their superior interior, but a reminder that it’s been a while since they popped in and joined the Sunday services?

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According to a new analysis this week, only half the people who are eligible for a refund, having being mis-sold Payment Protection Insurance policies by their banks, have yet applied.

Which is something of a surprise, since the airwaves are thick with exhortations to call such-and-such a commercial operation just gagging to act on their behalf. Doubtless for a tidy commission.

Meanwhile, there are parallel adverts asking anyone who may have been involved in a car accident, any time between now and when God was a girl, to get in touch about claiming compensation. Probably for that oh-so-difficult-to-pin-down, whiplash-type injury.

And this week I heard a new pitch: anyone who got a tummy bug on their hols any time in the last three years should please get in touch with Sue Grabbit and Runne (other firms are available), and stick in a claim to cover the cost of their disappointing - but expensive - vacation.

In short, we live in an age where everything and anything which befalls you is fair game for a certain breed of law firms, who are anxious to make sure your accident/incident/ailment can be re-configured in such a way as to bring them in some new business.

In my early days in the newspaper business, we used to call them “ambulance chasers”, but it has since blossomed out into all manner of life events.

You won’t find your local lawyer indulging in this sort of stuff - most of it is carried out by recently set up firms “specialising” in finding and pursuing claims most folk wouldn’t dream of making.

Sadly, however, there is a breed of client which matches this type of commercial operation only too well. There are claimants out there who claim for injuries they never received, in accidents they never really had.

Worse still, there are crooks who actually stage real accidents with ancient bangers and better quality cars, specifically to defraud insurers.

There are people who can’t so much as trip over a paving stone without their first port of call being the council’s legal department, and folks not above damaging furnishings so they can claim for replacements.

You may recall one woman suing the people who staged an upmarket ceilidh, claiming the flooring caused her to tumble during an eightsome reel.

You rather suspect that alcohol may just have been a more prominent factor in her downfall (or fall down).

I have one acquaintance who seems to spend most of his holidays scouring the experience for disappointment, so that he can fire off a letter to the managing director of the travel company. His not-so-subtle game plan seems to be angling for a discount or a compensatory cash vouchers against his next trip.

Apart from all this being pretty unsavoury, it impacts on the rest of the citizenry. Every fake or dubious claim adds to the annual bill of the law-abiding, since insurance companies would rather the public took the hit than their shareholders.

So next time you get sick on holiday, consider that your dietary intake may just have had some bearing. And, if you trip up unexpectedly, think about taking more water with it!