The report, Courting Mistrust, says a "compensation culture" is costing the UK £6.8bn a year in payouts and legal fees.

As many as 98% of compensation claims might be settled without even going to court, says the papers' author, Dr Frank Furedi.

Organisations and businesses are so concerned over possible litigation that they will not attempt anything risky, says the report for the right-wing think tank the Centre for Policy Studies.

He said many playgrounds are being closed because councils are concerned about legal action if any children are injured.

Boost for legal profession

Dr Furedi says the rise of legislation has undermined relationships and parental responsibility.

He says the expansion in litigation has created a boom in the legal profession.

Examples of what Dr Furedi condemned as the "institutionalisation of irresponsibility" include:

• Holidaymakers suing their travel agents if they caught food poisoning on holiday

• Young adults suing their schools for their poor performance

• A soldier suing the Army for the stress of seeing his friend killed.

He warned: "Advocates of compensation culture always present complaining and blaming as the defiant acts of the active citizen.

"But too often today, blaming offers a popularly sanctioned excuse from tackling the consequences of one's action."

The assumption that someone else was always to blame for one's predicament was a "profoundly disturbing" view of how much power human beings had to control their lives, painting them as "passive, pathetic creatures unable to make real choices".

'Restrict pay-outs'

He warns that reforms of the legal system, which will begin later this month, could make the situation worse.

The report calls for more debate on whether moves should be made to curb the trend to litigation, including measures to restrict the size of pay-outs.

Dr Furedi contrasts what he sees as a culture of litigation in the 1990s with the response to the 1966 Aberfan disaster.

He says that after 116 children and 28 adults were killed in a coal tip slide, relatives decided not to launch prosecutions because that would have been "to bow to vengeance".