“Right Against Might Looks to Empower People, Helping Them to Fight Back”
A NEWLY formed creative dispute resolution service has vowed to hold the biggest businesses and organisations to account on behalf of “underdog consumers”.
Right Against Might is about social justice for everyone and taking on “David vs Goliath” battles and will challenge large institutions and individuals who don’t live up to their promises.
Using a unique approach, the company aims to secure “swift justice” for thousands of people across the UK with nowhere else to turn.
Right Against Might (RAM) is the brainchild of advertising executive Chris Joseph.
Chris, from Stockton-on-Tees, who is also a bestselling author and mental health campaigner, has successfully challenged several multinational companies in the High Court in London. He has also taken on and beaten the banking industry.
His trailblazing work established the legal precedent by which all creative agencies now retain copyright in their pitch work.
Chris, who has forged a successful career despite losing his right arm at the age of 20, in an horrific industrial “accident”.
It was caused by an absence of health and safety precautions and a lack of care by rich employers with insurance policies covering them against workers’ deaths. In 1978, the firm at fault was fined £250 over the incident.
“You don’t need to be a legal expert to know the difference between right and wrong”
“I’ve spent a large part of my life fighting and being the underdog. Now I want to use those creative skills to help others through Right Against Might. All too often people are wrongly told that to get justice they need a highly-paid lawyer, solicitor or barrister.
“But you don’t need to be a legal expert to know the difference between right and wrong, and when someone is telling the truth. You need Right Against Might.”
Unlike other dispute resolution services, RAM comprises a team of experts in iconoclasm and advertising, as well as law, who will use an infinite pool of creativity to resolve complaints.
“We usually resolve and settle complaints swiftly because our team has a dogged determination to seek justice and to see that right is done as quickly as possible,” Chris said.
“This isn’t just important for our clients, it’s important for their opponents too. We will go to the court of public opinion if necessary, it’s much quicker than a court of law. But we know how to use both.
“The legal process can be as traumatic as it was for me going into the machine .”
Ordinary People are waiting longer and longer for justice
The creation of RAM couldn’t come at a more important time.
Latest data shows that people who try and make a legal claim against an organisation are waiting longer and longer for justice. Many also find access to justice impossible due to changes to legal aid provision.
According to the most recent Ministry of Justice figures, the mean time taken for small claims and multi/fast track claims to go to trial was a year and half in 2022. Compared to 2019, these measures are 14.2 weeks longer for small claims and 17.8 weeks longer for multi/fast track claims.
Yet despite the slow pace of “justice” complaints in many areas for consumers are sharply rising.
In the energy sector alone they’ve skyrocketed in the past year.
Figures showing calls made to the Energy Ombudsman by frustrated customers show 105,340 complaints were received in 2022, a jump of nearly 20,000 complaints since 2021.
These levels of complaints are also seen in other sectors too.
RAM: unashamedly irreverent towards ‘Goliaths’
Chris added: “More and more organisations are getting away with ripping off customers and clients.
“There’s no one like us out there because we are unashamedly irreverent towards ‘Goliaths’. They can be individuals, organisations, and companies who seek to crush seemingly powerless ‘Davids’.
“RAM looks to empower those victims, helping and showing them how to fight back and think ‘outside the box’. Although we are aware of the legal tramlines we must not cross, we know where to go, who to talk to, and most importantly, what to do and how to win.
“Each dispute is different and interesting and at the beginning we work on behalf of our clients on a pro bono basis.
“With years of experience in the advertising industry, we produce communications or campaigns that are always legal, honest, decent and truthful. Our imagery, messages and media clout are powerful and we work creatively and strategically with our clients.
“The truth is simple. We say in a few words what lawyers say in millions of words.”
A String of Successes
RAM has already secured a string of successes on behalf of clients.
Dr Bill Scott OBE, contacted RAM after reading Chris’ autobiography Zest!Seller. The engineering company boss was caught up in a consumer dispute with a major worldwide corporation that was simply stonewalling and ignoring him and other customers, much to the anguish of him and his family.
RAM helped him and quickly secured a resolution and settlement of the matter.
Instead of the matter dragging out for years in expensive and torturous lengthy litigation, funded by company insurance policies, it was very quickly resolved and settled to Dr Scott’s satisfaction.
He said: “Right Against Might helped me get justice when I had nowhere else to turn.”
The creation of RAM marks the latest chapter in Chris’ remarkable life.
He was working at an iron foundry while taking a year out from university studies when tragedy struck on May 24, 1978. Then aged 20, his right arm was pulled into the cogs of the main hoist of a gantry crane at the foundry and crushed.
Chris was on his own at the top the crane when it happened and should have been killed.
He was working in an iron foundry and took a year out to consider becoming a priest and he worked as a bouncer and became a monk during the time.
He was rescued by colleagues but they mistakenly turned the machine on again which resulted in Chris losing his arm up to his shoulder and nearly being decapitated.
After recovering, he returned to the University of Liverpool where he completed his degrees in French and Communications. In that time he had to learn to do everything left-handed from writing and tying his laces to driving, and the accident changed his outlook on life at such a young age.
“I now live life to the fullest!”
Chris added: “When you face death like I did, you feel fearless, it changes everything, but it also makes you not unafraid of anything. You realise you can’t predict the future. If I could, I wouldn’t have been up there at the top of the crane.
“I live life to the fullest and seize every day as it comes along because I’m happy that I’m here to experience it.”
Precisely ten years after the accident Chris developed Manic Depressive Psychosis, now called Bipolar Affective Disorder after Chris and his colleagues campaigned to change the name of the disorder as the word manic is nearest in the English dictionary to the word maniac.
He was Chairman of the Manic Depression Fellowship and worked alongside patron and comedy legend Spike Milligan where he helped to break down the stigma of mental illness.
After university, Chris started up his own business – Hook Advertising – named after the solid silver hook he wore on his arm and worked in the advertising industry in London for decades, including as a creative new business consultant to the legendary Saatchi and Saatchi.
In 2002, Chris taught himself to control the benign Incredible Hulk inside him that rages against injustice.
He has three children and also founded the independent Middlesbrough Supporters’ Forum to represent the disparate fans and fan groups of Middlesbrough Football Club.
Earlier this year Chris, who is originally from Stockton-on-Tees, celebrated his 65th birthday with sporting legend Frank Bruno alongside him – a fellow champion of mental health issues.
After 45 years without his arm and 21 years without bipolar illness, Chris refuses to be defined by disability or mental health: “My life is rich and full and much more than flaws in my health.”
As Chris says in Zest!Seller, “I’m now certifiably sane, how about you?”