A law firm has warned its solicitors are receiving daily abuse and threats from members of the public for its legal aid, immigration and asylum work.
Legal aid practice Duncan Lewis issued a lengthy statement this week, calling on the government and sections of the media to stop their anti-lawyer rhetoric ‘which creates hatred not only of immigration and publicly funded lawyers, but of immigrants generally.
‘We are now seeing our lawyers experience abusive behaviour and receive abhorrent and threatening messages online daily for simply trying to do their job and be a voice for the most vulnerable: victims of torture, victims of trafficking and unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. This has to stop.
‘Please be assured that we do not deal with cases we think have no merit…If a lawyer pursues unjustifiable “endless legal claims” as [Home Secretary] Priti Patel alleges, they are not paid.’
It was reported last week that a violent knife attack took place at a law firm in September. For security reasons, the firm has not been identified.
The escalating rhetoric prompted Bar Council Chair, Amanda Pinto QC to write to the prime minister to demand an apology. Both the PM and the Home Secretary made derogatory comments about ‘lefty lawyers’ in their speeches at Conservative Party Conference last week.
Pinto said: ‘There should never be a situation when a British Prime Minister, Home Secretary and other government ministers need to be called upon to stop deliberately inflammatory language towards a profession simply doing its job in the public interest.
‘Shockingly, we've arrived at that point. Even if it was never the intention of this government to incite violence against members of the legal profession, the fact the personal safety of lawyers is now at risk demands an immediate retraction of the ill-judged comments made in recent weeks by the Prime Minister and the Home Secretary, as well as a public apology.’
