The Northern Irish law firm KRW Law is taking defamation action against Secretary of State Brandon Lewis.
according to the BBC NI, the proceedings concern an article written by Mr Lewis on the Conservative Home website on the issue of the legacy of the Problems.
Action is also being taken against the Office of Northern Ireland and the website itself.
Mr Lewis is moving forward with his plans to reform his inherited plans here with a bill on problems, offering immunity from prosecution to people who cooperate with an information extraction body.
The proposals passed second reading last month with the support of Tory MPs, but were not supported by any local MPs.
Although he did not specify specific companies, in a Conservative Home article written on June 9, Mr. Lewis referred to “specialized law firms that run campaigns on inheritance issues financed primarily by legal aid.”
He claims that they “managed to sell false hope and take advantage of the pain of those who are looking for answers to what happened to their loved ones.”
“Until now, the main way to do this has been through lengthy and adversarial legal proceedings, which provide neither justice nor information in the vast majority of cases,” the article continued.
“This feeds a pernicious and distorted view of the past, encouraged and disseminated by those who have an interest in portraying the British state as an aggressor when the truth is that terrorist organizations are responsible for most of the deaths in Northern Ireland.
KRW law deals with a large number of inheritance cases in Northern Ireland.
A statement issued to the BBC NI by the company in Belfast said that action was being taken because Mr Lewis had attacked the work of lawyers dealing with cases involving problems.
They told the organization that the article made “defamatory allegations about law firms in Northern Ireland that represent clients in inheritance cases”.
There is also a separate, ongoing case, taken by the same company, related to an interview that Mr. Lewis gave about the legacy in 2020.
In a statement from KRW Law to the BBC NI, they added: “My colleagues and I can confirm that we are taking defamation proceedings against him both personally and as a representative of the government.
“His comments come at the back of his Tories’ ongoing efforts to stop victims of the conflict from gaining access to justice through the courts.
“They are not satisfied with trying to lock up the courts, they now want to silence the lawyers who are trying to keep these same courts open to families affected by the conflict.
There is a tone that goes back to the toxic comments of former Tory Minister Douglas Hogg in 1989, when he accused some lawyers of being “sympathetic to the IRA.”
“They just don’t appreciate that we get instructions from our customers.
“To this end, any attack on ‘specialized lawyers’ is an attack on the victims of the conflict.”
In a statement, an NIO spokesman said: “It would not be appropriate to comment on ongoing court proceedings.”
The Conservative Home website contacted for a response.
Add Comment