« Consumer rights, legal and related (UK) »
Introduction
It's amazing how your thinking changes as you get older. As a teenager I found the Americans obsession with suing the shirt off folk for the least thing abhorrent. Indeed in parts it remains ludicrous...
"Let me get this straight Judge Dreadful, he was precariously balancing one of our clients chairs on a wardrobe to access a locked attic, falls breaking his leg - and we have to pay him $2 million because we never designed the chair properly. Are you nuts!?"
It's just as daft in the UK where criminal can sue householders when the cut themselves on windows they themselves break to burgle...
Juridical inanities aside, I am way more inclined to sue for negligence and assert my legal rights than I was when I was younger. "It's only a small scar, why should I claim against my employers, they are kind enough to give me a job..." Should have nailed the buggers the first or second time. I've an ongoing legal wrangle with them and I will win in the end.
I recently got into one wrangle with a computer company. Due to a BIOS quirk, the Compaq system was unable to take the backslash - didn't help that the dealers lied about the specs. Their attitude was Just put up with it, you got a good price
". Then it was, We can't afford to take it back.
When their other customers walked off, costing them sales it degenerated into If you don't walk away (with the faulty computer) I'll put you in hospital
. Fairly stupid thing to say to a person like me before a score of witnesses. Anyway, the long shot was because I was aware of my rights as a consumer I was able to assert myself and ended up with a better computer.
Another one I've initiated related to a malpractice suit against a dentist for negligence. Even as recently as this month I put it off because I actually like the man, as a person. Then I got to thinking, I was in abject agony as a result of his shoddy work, I've spent a fair bit just to minimise the damage and will need several thousand pounds, not to mention months of surgery to correct it, why the heck should I pay!?
(In the end the dental council I contacted didn't think I could win so I let it go.)
When I look back over my life and consider all the dirty tricks I've seen and tolerated I'm quite amazed I'm not more jaded than I am. And don't get me started on insurance companies (ALL of them) who use any legal technicality they can to avoid paying out on claims. Ever watched 'The Incredibles'? Remember the bit where Bob, Mr Incredible, is getting a roasting from his manager at the insurance company for daring to help a customer make a claim? That's how I, and I suspect the rest of you, see insurance companies. Legalised fraud, in my opinion!
Anyway, this won't be a massive section as I known little about the legal industry and care somewhat less, but I will put in a selection of links and tips to point you in the right direction. I really don't hold with folk that will sue for profit (Oooh, ooh whiplash...) as that's just theft in my eyes, but at the same time, I don't see why I, or anyone else should be out of pocket just because a company or its employees are too lazy or incompetent to do a proper job or are cutting corners to make a fast buck at your expense.
