Ban foreigners from claiming legal aid to hound our soldiers
Now furious war veterans demand:
FOREIGN citizens who make often ‘spurious’ claims of mist r eatment against British troops should be banned from claiming legal aid, top military brass demanded last night.
As anger over the inquiry into UK soldiers’ behaviour during the 2003 Iraq War intensified, they said ‘ambulance-chasing’ law firms should not be handed taxpayers’ money.
They also demanded an inquiry into the firms and said they should be prosecuted for using agents, such as Abu Jamal, who persuaded a grieving widow to mount a claim against the MoD in the aftermath of the war.
The practice of ‘touting for business’ is a breach of the Solicitors’ Code of Conduct whether it is undertaken by the firm or an agent working for them.
Colonel Richard Kemp, a former commander in Afghanistan, said: ‘We need to deny legal aid to foreign citizens making claims against our troops. This is the major factor that encourages so many of these cases.
‘They [law firms] should be prosecuted if they are found to be breaking the law and struck off if they are breaking the Solicitors’ Code of Conduct.
‘The Government needs to find a better way of stopping all of these fraudulent claims coming in and filtering out the genuine ones.’
Admiral Lord West, former First Sea Lord, said: ‘Far from having a five-year review into British soldiers, of which many of the claims turn out to be totally spurious, I would like to have a short and sharp thorough investigation of all the law firms in this.
‘I know from my contacts in Iraq that it is quite clear agents are turning up on people’s door steps, saying we gather your son, husband was injured, and telling them we know how you can claim money for this.
‘We need to chase this up and follow the agents and prosecute law firms using the agents where necessary.’
Today hundreds of veterans will march to Westminster to call for an immediate end to the harassment of soldiers, many of whom are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
Yesterday it emerged that the number of cases being examined by the 145strong Iraq Historical Allegations Team has passed the 1,500 mark. Despite no one being convicted, the probe will drag on until 2019 at the earliest and will cost tens of millions of pounds.
Last night Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said lawyers should no longer be mounting spurious claims against war heroes which he said was a ‘completely unacceptable attempt to abuse our legal system to falsely impugn our Armed Forces’.
He added: ‘We made a clear manifesto commitment to ensure that our Armed Forces are not subjected to persistent legal claims that undermine their ability to do their job. We are working to deliver that.’
Mr Fallon’s comments came as it emerged the law firms have been sending duplicate submissions to the inquiry looking into Iraqi claims. Legal firms Public Interest Lawyers and Leigh Day – both receiving legal aid – have tried to launch more than 2,000 claims alleging criminality by the Armed Forces. But one third of their cases have been knocked back. Many of the estimated 750 cases submitted to the £57million IHAT were thrown out because the death was already being examined. Some duplicate cases alleging torture and unlawful killings featured different spellings of the name of the same dead Iraqi.
There is no evidence to suggest that PIL, run by Phil Shiner, or Leigh Day submitted duplicate cases deliberately. But it casts even further doubt on the authenticity of the claims and reveals how taxpayers’ money is potentially being squandered.
A Leigh Day spokesman said IHAT never suggested there had been confusion or duplication surrounding its claims. A PIL spokesman denied the allegations and said the amount of duplicate cases was less than 1 per cent of the total number of cases.
A spokesman added: ‘ No PIL cases have been dismissed.’