Brandjack News

There's often tension about whether or not to apologize in a crisis. Attorneys will generally advise not to. Communications professionals are more likely to favor the idea. But one thing should be clear. If you apologize, you need to be sincere and transparent. You need to accept the scale of what has gone wrong. The breaking news about Alexander Morris of the Four Tops seems to exhibit the worst of all worlds. Here's the story:

Morris went to hospital in Michigan with clear signs of cardiac distress. When he identified himself as a member of the legendary Motown group, it seems that staff did not believe him. They put him on psychiatric watch and into a straitjacket. 

The hospital has not commented, as there's a strong chance of litigation. Morris claims racial discrimination, among other things.

It's not clear how hospital staff got from (wrongly, it seems) assessing him as delusional to deciding that he needed to be restrained. 

Since we don't have enough information to judge the hospital's actions on that point just yet, let's look instead at the offer to compensate Morris with a $25 gift card. (For a retailer, not for future hospital visits). 

Attorneys usually advise against apologies because they seem to acknowledge liability. Offers of compensation are usually made "without prejudice", meaning you can't hold the fact that they made the offer as an admission of liability. 

Communicators often advise in favor of apology, because there is real evidence that it eases bad feeling and makes litigation less likely. 

The problem with an offer of compensation that is derisory if that it seems to accept liability without mitigating any bad feeling. 

This was not just a situation in which a couple of nurses giggled at his claim to be a member of a prominent singing group. It started a process which led to a straitjacket.

Maybe the hospital plans to claim that he became belligerent and the straitjacket decision was justified. If so, they should be clear that they stand by this decision, and the compensation is only because of the misunderstanding about his identity. A better approach would be to immediately apologize for the mistake about his identity, but say they are still investigating the decision to put him in a straitjacket, and will be transparent when that investigation is complete.