Obiter is a fan of the work of Thompsons’ head of marketing David Standard and his attempts to call out misleading legal headlines on LinkedIn.

His latest grievance is a humdinger: a Telegraph headline of ‘Postman who punched customer in face handed £5,000.’

Aside from the thought of compensation now being ‘handed out’ like at a prize-giving ceremony, Standard points out the headline doesn’t even come close to telling the whole story.

The punching postman turned out to have been attacked first and was acting in self-defence. A tribunal had ruled that the postie, who boasted a 15-year unblemished record, was sacked without notice after a flawed internal investigation by Royal Mail.

As Standard pointed out: ‘The award wasn’t a windfall, it wasn’t a "win" – it wasn’t handed to him, it was compensation for breach of contract, calculated to the penny, and based on the employer’s failure to meet its legal obligations.’

Obiter applauds such headline vigilantism, and encourages anyone else irked by a misleading banner to speak up. Or get in touch with us and we’ll do it for you.

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