SIR - There is something seriously amiss with society for all sorts of reasons, but the one major concern today is the compensation culture we live in.

Can anyone explain why someone deserves a payout of £20,000 for a broken ankle - the person concerned can still eat, sleep, walk, talk, could still get all manner of jobs, etc. She has all her faculties. Why does she deserve so much?

Victims of crime never get anything approaching that sort of figure. People who are killed in accidents or are left with life-long injuries never see that sort of money and that is far more deserving, I would have thought. What value life?

I think it's about time tribunals got real. The message needs to be that everything should be considered in relative terms, and does the figure awarded justify the damage caused?

If this doesn't happen, who knows where it will end!

M Byrne, Clover Street, Little Horton, Bradford