Legal services help 'archaic' insurance law be overwritten

Consumers seeking legal services over problems with insurance laws have been told that a new bill has had its first reading to make things fairer on them.

Penman and Sommerland, investigating for the Daily Mirror, said that the Trading Standards Institute has been campaigning to have "archaic" insurance laws from 1906 updated as they do not favour consumers.

Its campaigning has led to the Scottish and English Law Commissions publishing a report, with the resulting Consumer Insurance (Disclosure and Representations) Bill getting its first reading in the House of Lords.

"It is great news to hear that the government has decided to implement the Law Commissions' recommendations for the reform of key aspects of consumer insurance law. The law was not developed with consumers in mind," Manchester University expert Peter Tyldesley told the source.

He added that the current rules set "unreasonable standards" for consumers to meet and "punishes them disproportionately" when they fail.

Recently, consumers were advised to seek legal services to check their consumer rights as Focus DIY announced that it was going into administration, with some customers still waiting on orders to be delivered.

Published by Rob Stanworth