The Advertising Standards Authority is nothing if not thorough.

On Wednesday the watchdog published a ruling in relation to Essex firm Lorrells LLP and its pledge that clients will receive ‘100% of any money that we reclaim on your behalf’.

The claim, made on the firm’s website, raised the concerns of Lloyds Banking Group, which challenged the claim on the grounds it could be misleading and could not be substantiated. The ASA agreed.

But Obiter’s favourite part of the ruling is the effort to contact Lorrells over the complaint.

The ASA said it ‘was concerned by Lorrells LLP’s lack of response and apparent disregard for the code, which was a breach of CAP Code rule 1.7 (Unreasonable delay).

‘We reminded them of their responsibility to provide a response to our enquiries and told them to do so in future.’

It’s possible that message won't cause too many ripples, however, given that the firm went into liquidation in September. The Lorrells website simply has a rather forlorn one-word message: unavailable.

The ASA’s stated action is for the advert never to appear again in its current form. Obiter thinks this will be easy to uphold.

Topics