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Insurance and banking customers who have been mis-sold financial products are more likely to be awarded compensation if they use a scientific test to prove policy documents were too difficult to read. According to a study which applied a little-known formula called the "Flesch Kincaid" reading score to nearly 300 insurers' documents, a third of all insurance policy documents are written in a language that is only understandable to people with university level qualifications. This would render them incomprehensible to millions of people with a lower reading ability. Lawyers say the test, which gauges how readable text is to the average person using a complex formula to measure factors including word length, could be used as a "powerful tool" to prove documents were unfairly worded. It also means customers who previously had complaints rejected could find ground to re-open their cases.
What the "Flesch Kincaid" formula looks like
At present courts assume customers have read and understood all documents relating to their policies, but using a test to prove this was not possible could change this. The discovery comes after the City watchdog launched and industry consultation last month to make policy documents drastically easier for customers to understand.
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The "Flesch Kincaid" reading score is well established in the US, where most states require insurers' policy documents to be written at no higher than a ninth-grade level (14–15 years of age) of reading difficulty. Despite this it remains largely unrecognized in the UK.
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Ben Kingsley, a partner at Slaughter and May, a law firm, said: "The laws and regulations are continuing to push for greater fairness and clarity - ultimately on relative terms, not scientific absolutes. But being able to prove this in a scientific way could potentially be a very powerful tool to form part of an argument in court." Andrew Willoughby, of BT3, a law firm, said: "Companies have an obligation to treat their customers fairly. In the courts the presumption is that you [the customer] have read and understood all the Ts & Cs. This could help change that.".....Read more here