Can I sue MSE for the bad financial advice of its contributors?

Lokolo · 27 April 2008 at 2:41PM

I like to think of it like this:

Posters are strangers. The forum is a town. You go around asking strangers questions. They give their response.

Now if they gave an incorrect response, could you sue them? No, don't be silly. :rolleyes:

nearlyrich · 27 April 2008 at 2:50PM

This covers it I think post 13

Dithering_Dad · 27 April 2008 at 2:54PM

Thanks Nearly Rich, I especially like this text from Martin's post:

"Forum users are asked to make it clear if discussing a topic they have professional knowledge of that they work in that field (but do not tout for business). However, please do not give advice. This is particularly (but not only) relevant on the Pure Money, Health, Old Style, In My Home and Is It Fair? Boards."

Disregarded day after day...

dunstonh · 27 April 2008 at 3:06PM

DD, I believe I know who you are referring to and just in case you are not aware, she is not a financial adviser and has nothing to do with financial services. I dont believe any of the professionals that contribtute to the board cross the line. However, some non-professionals do.

Some contributers have been critical in the past at the lack of actual advice the advisers that contribute to the board actually give. We do often give generalised comments or answer the questions with questions. That is because in many areas there are no clear cut answers and you need more detailed information to give proper advice. Even then, we still cant give advice and just give directions and suggestions to aid your own research.

There are often comments posted telling people to do things that are clearly wrong or more commonly could be right but could be wrong but not enough detail is known. Its been mentioned a number of times before and the general response is that if you act on comments made on this board then you take the responsbility for that. There have been some threads in the past where people question proper advice given (nothing wrong with that) where certain posters have gone on to tell them not to do it because the adviser will earn from it and instead of told them to do something different which is clearly poor advice. The one stand out thread on that was where someone was told to ignore the advice of the IFA because they would earn £10k commission out of it and go execution only (meaning no FOS protection) with HL instead as it would be cheaper. However, that "advice" could have cost the person nearly 200k in an IHT liability all because certain posters on the board felt that it was better to pay HMRC 200k than an adviser earn 10k to remove that £200k liability.

There are people who dont need advice or who are happy to accept consquences of going DIY and there are distribution channels for them to use which is great. However, there are plenty of times where DIY to save a few pounds can be false economy and we have seen those a number of times on here.

Quasar · 27 April 2008 at 3:07PM

Dithering_Dad wrote: »

Thanks Nearly Rich, I especially like this text from Martin's post:

"Forum users are asked to make it clear if discussing a topic they have professional knowledge of that they work in that field (but do not tout for business). However, please do not give advice. This is particularly (but not only) relevant on the Pure Money, Health, Old Style, In My Home and Is It Fair? Boards."

Disregarded day after day...

There is a difference between offering advice and offering an opinion. What people post here are opinions, but should they openly state it is advice they are giving, the reader should go back to the forum disclaimer. There is no way around it.

We as adults have a duty to ourselves to check our sources and do our research, as you say.

A forum carrying all the appropriate disclaimers can only be sued for defamation and distressing remarks, such as libellous or racist statements etc.

ianmr65 · 27 April 2008 at 3:38PM

Dithering_Dad wrote: »

Some of the people on MSE who provide this direct advice have over 10k posts, leading newbies into the belief that they are part of the MSE organisation. Surely this could be grounds for a successful claim if their advice is wrong and wrecks their finances?

What does everyone else think?

No it wouldn't be grounds for a succesful cliam

1) MSE is clear in it's rules, and is not regulated by the FSA
2) MSE is an finacial opinion/ journailsm based website, and there is no payment made for any advice given.
3) There is no direct relationship between the party giving advice. And the party taking it.
4) It's hard enough to prove 'negligent' advice, given by an IFA in the real world to a paying client.
5) If these types of claims had ever been succesful, every newspaper in the land that offers financial advice would be in the county courts week in week out, fighting cases brought by ambulance chasing lawyers. And they are not.

Jonbvn · 27 April 2008 at 5:41PM

ianmr65 wrote: »

No it wouldn't be grounds for a succesful cliam

1) MSE is clear in it's rules, and is not regulated by the FSA
2) MSE is an finacial opinion/ journailsm based website, and there is no payment made for any advice given.
3) There is no direct relationship between the party giving advice. And the party taking it.
4) It's hard enough to prove 'negligent' advice, given by an IFA in the real world to a paying client.
5) If these types of claims had ever been succesful, every newspaper in the land that offers financial advice would be in the county courts week in week out, fighting cases brought by ambulance chasing lawyers. And they are not.

Good post!

People have to be responsible for their own decisions!

margaretclare · 27 April 2008 at 5:50PM

I do hope that I can never be said to have written 'I'd do this if I were you' and all the other things you criticise. Reason: I am NOT you and therefore have not all the detailed knowledge of the situation you are asking about. People are very different and what suits one will not necessarily suit another.

I have sometimes written about my experience of equity release, why we did it, what the results were, but I've always referred people to SHIP (safe home equity plans) and I've always said that their website should be someone's first port of call, and I've said that it's a serious decision which is not to be taken in hand lightly (oooops, as the old marriage service used to say!) but after due consideration.

baby_boomer · 27 April 2008 at 6:01PM

The government is desperate for a bit of effective financial education and MSE provides this better than any school or university programme and at no cost to the taxpayer.

If a full ranging discussion is shut down to keep away the ambulance chasers & their lawyer partners in crime, then everyone is a loser

- except the lawyers and, possibly, the IFAs.

bristolleedsfan · 27 April 2008 at 7:01PM

margaretclare wrote: »

I do hope that I can never be said to have written 'I'd do this if I were you' and all the other things you criticise. Reason: I am NOT you and therefore have not all the detailed knowledge of the situation you are asking about. People are very different and what suits one will not necessarily suit another.

I agree, :T always amazes me when people post asking people that they dont know what they should do with their own money, shall they fix for 5 years or should they do this or that with their own money. :T

Even people saying that say 6.20 ISA fix for 4 years is a good deal, how do they know what the situation will be from 2010 onwards.

Can I sue MSE for the bad financial advice of its contributors?

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