The prime minister has ordered ministers on the UK’s national security council to draw up options to deter law firms pursuing claims against Iraq war veterans.
These could include the requirement that legal aid claimants have lived in the UK for 12 months, or restrictions on "no win no fee" agreements. David Cameron said last week that it was “clear there is now an industry trying to profit from spurious claims lodged against our brave servicemen and women who fought in Iraq”.
Claims against the Ministry of Defence (MoD) on behalf of Iraqi nationals have been brought by Leigh Day solicitors and Public Interest Lawyers (PIL), resulting in the £31m Al-Sweady inquiry into whether British soldiers tortured and murdered detainees near Basra in 2004. The claims folded after Leigh Day failed to disclose a document that showed some of the claimants were members of the rebel Mahdi army. The inquiry concluded that the allegations of torture and murder were “deliberate lies, reckless speculation and ingrained hostility”.
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has now referred Leigh Day to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal over its failure to disclose the document to the inquiry. Leigh Day said it would “contest those allegations vigorously”.
In a statement on its website, Leigh Day says: “Over the last twelve years many cases of abuse made against the MoD during the course of the occupation of Iraq have come to light and been accepted by the government. In addition, the government has paid compensation for over 300 other cases relating to abuse and unlawful detention of Iraqis.”
In a statement, PIL says: “There is no evidential basis of there being ‘spurious claims’ and the prime minister’s comments are wholly unfounded."
The SRA will not refer Public Interest Lawyers to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.
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