Law in Action

Professor Prue Vines appeared on BBC Radio 4 (9 November 2017) discussing her studies in apologies law and the new campaign in England that urges companies to publicly apologise for mistakes. 

"When a person apologises to somebody, the person has been injured or hurt, their blood pressure drops, they feel a lot better. People are less likely to sue you if you apologise to them, and if they do feel that they really need to sue you, they are much more likely to settle early and cost you a lot less" Prue said.

"The apology itself is not [an admission of negligence], by itself evidence of the actual wrongdoing of the person and certainly not their legal wrongdoing. An apology on its own should never be sufficient for somebody to be found negligent, an apology on its own should never be enough to find someone liable".

 Prue went on to say, "The English law, in the compensation act, says very briefly that an apology or an offer of treatment or of redress of some kind on its own doesn’t amount to an admission of negligence or breach of statutory duty". 

Listen to the full piece here (from approximately 18:00).