Total Pageviews

Monday, 2 September 2013

When is a mugging not really a mugging?



The well publicised battle between the Law Society and the ABI over the Society’s Personal Injury, advertising campaign has finally been brought to an end by the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA).

You will recall that the ABI had complained about the advertisements and went as far as accusing lawyers of ‘mugging the public’ –


They took their grievances to the ASA who have firmly rejected them. One of the complaints was that it suggested that insurers were criminals who beat up claimants! Now the image shows somebody who has certainly had a bad day but the wording clearly refers to victims of an accident. 

Relations between the legal profession and the insurance sector may be at an all time low but no-one would suggest for a minute that they have taken to physically assaulting claimants in a dark alley! The ASA agreed that the advertisement would not suggest to anyone that insurers were criminals.

The same goes for the word ‘mugged’ which any sensible person would understand as a financial mugging caused by accepting inadequate offers.


The campaign has now ended and has certainly generated publicity for victims of accidents. And it was an entirely appropriate campaign. Insurance companies have continued to insist that they should be allowed to settle damages claims directly with victims, and that lawyers just make the system more expensive.

But in reality anybody dealing with these cases knows that the insurers will always want to keep payments to a minimum. I recently mentioned a case involving terrible injuries where, they had to be dragged to a court hearing before a realistic result was achieved –


So it is encouraging that the ASA have taken a sensible view. 

The Law Society do not always get the credit they deserve but on this occasion they have done a great job – both in terms of the campaign itself and sticking firmly to ther guns in the face of powerful opposition.





1 comment:

  1. Nice tip. It's useful to make costumer buy the best an insurance policy.There are many kinds of insurance and also their requirements and details are different, so cheak all details and select best var insurance.

    ReplyDelete