PM targets the lawyers hounding UK troops
WITCH-HUNT AGAINST OUR HEROES
THERESA May is ordering sweeping changes to stop lawyers targeting British troops.
The Prime Minister said proposals would be announced within days to bring an end to legal firms ‘trying to impugn the name’ of the Armed Forces.
The blitz is expected to focus on making it no longer worthwhile for ambulance-chasing lawyers to bring ‘vexatious’ cases.
It is likely to include a crackdown on no-win, no-fee agreements and a time limit on claims.
In her first visit to a military base as PM, Mrs May said: ‘What we need to take action on... is this issue of vexatious claims. The issue of those legal firms that are trying to impugn the name of our Armed Forces.
‘We need to ensure that when the men and women of our Armed Forces go out there on our behalf, willing to
‘It is long overdue’
sacrifice themselves for our safety and for our defence, that they have our full confidence and backing in doing that – and that’s what we will give them.’
Mrs May’s intervention will be seen as an attempt to restore faith in the military for soldiers who feel they have been ‘hung out to dry’ by commanding officers and the Government, as reported in the Mail’s Witch-hunt Against Our Heroes campaign.
In recent days, serving troops have threatened legal action against the MoD and have even offered to throw themselves at the mercy of the International Criminal Court at The Hague to escape the British justice system.
Military chiefs fear that the witchhunt of troops, many of whom have been dragged through as many as five probes for one incident a decade ago, is damaging morale.
Potential recruits are being told by former officers not to join up because of the MoD’s appetite for ‘cannibalism’. Government sources said the crackdown announced by Mrs May would focus on stopping law firms profiting from cases against the MoD and soldiers at taxpayers’ expense.
A cost limit on so-called conditional fee agreements, known as ‘no-win, nofee’ deals, would remove the incentive for lawyers to use third-party agents to trawl for business.
A time limit on new claims would mean that, in future wars, it would not be possible to lodge cases a decade or more after the fighting is over. It could also stop new claims pouring in over Iraq and Afghanistan.
Whitehall insiders said current investigations by the Iraq Historic Allegations Team were not being scrapped, and the changes were intended to stop similar cases being brought against troops in the future.
Mrs May spoke out during a visit with Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon to meet soldiers from 1st Battalion The Mercian Regiment at Picton Barracks in Bulford, Wiltshire.
The PM said: ‘If there are credible allegations of criminal behaviour, of course those should be investigated but what we need to take action on is this issue of vexatious claims.’
Tory MP Johnny Mercer, a former Army captain, said: ‘It is a step in the right direction, but... until you change the fatally flawed application of EU human rights law in combat we will leave ourselves open to persecuting our troops.’
Colonel Richard Kemp, who commanded forces in Afghanistan, added: ‘It is long overdue that the Prime Minister sticks up for our troops rather than sells them down the river.’