NRMA Insurance has filed a lawsuit against the Motor Traders Association (MTA) of NSW and the Country North Vehicle Repairers Association (CNVRA) over what the insurer says is a campaign of misleading and deceptive conduct.

It’s a significant escalation of the feud between the insurer and the MTA NSW. NRMA Insurance Head of Claims and Assessing David Brown says the insurer had no choice but to bring the issue before the courts.

The legal action was prompted by what he calls repeated “misleading and untrue statements” made by representatives of both organisations about the safety of repairs conducted via its controversial web-based “care and repair” service.

“We have been in continued discussions with the MTA NSW and the CNVRA on a range of issues affecting the smash repair and insurance industries and are happy to continue these discussions once these organisations commit to restricting their comments to the truth,” he said.

“Repeated attempts to set the record straight with these organisations have failed, and we wrote to them again last week seeking a public correction of these untrue statements, which are an insult to our staff and quality repairers.”

Mr Brown says NRMA Insurance will ask the court to compel the organisations to retract misleading statements. The legal proceedings will begin before the end of this week.