A firm which negotiated a settlement on behalf of military personnel has hit out at the nine-year wait for victims to secure justice.
Some veterans who were prescribed the anti-malarial drug Lariam brought claims back in 2016 against the Ministry of Defence and have now agreed an out-of-court settlement.
North-west firm Hilary Meredith Solicitors said it had secured a ‘substantial settlement’, but added that the MoD had insisted on a ‘gagging clause’ to prevent details being made public. The legal parties have agreed a settlement and all cases will be valued individually with counsel’s advice.
While pleased to have brought an end to proceedings, the firm said in a parting shot that the MoD had previously adopted a ‘deny until they die’ approach to proceedings which held up a settlement unnecessarily.
‘This case could have been settled within five years,’ said the firm’s owner Hilary Meredith-Beckham. ‘It was complex, involving the causal effects of the tablet on each individual soldier and in fairness we suffered the Covid years in the middle, but nine years is outrageous.
‘As well as our clients it is the taxpayer who pays the price when the defendant is a government body.’
More than 17,000 armed forces personnel were prescribed Lariam at least once between April 2007 and March 2015. But it was later alleged that side-effects of the drug included anxiety, nightmares, depression and hallucinations. In 2016, a House of Commons Defence Select Committee report said the drug should no longer be used in all but exceptional circumstances.
Meredith-Beckham suggested that the handling of future negligence claims should be taken away from the MoD and handed to an insurance firm, acting independently and with a commercial view to early settlement.
The firm’s own freedom of information request revealed that the MoD is spending £20m a year on defending claims from soldiers and veterans. Meredith-Beckham said the department’s approach to defending litigation at all costs was reminiscent of the way the Post Office litigated when facing claims from sub-postmasters in the last decade.
‘They’re stubbornly defending claims and adopting aggressive and unnecessary stalling tactics,’ she added. ‘In reality, the MoD is defending its own mistakes and is unwilling to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. The taxpayers’ money the MoD is wasting on legal costs would be placed in the hands of those who need it the most - our injured soldiers and veterans.’
The Ministry of Defence rejected any suggestion it had drawn out litigation for longer than was necessary or had taken an overly adversarial approach to veterans bringing claims.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the department said: ‘The MoD was guided by legal advice at all times. This characterisation of our approach to the litigation is simply wrong.
‘We take the health and welfare of our personnel very seriously, taking every possible precaution to ensure their safety - including protecting them against Malaria.
‘The majority of this case took place under the previous government. Litigation of damages for over 400 claims in relation to the prescription of Lariam many years ago were settled in October 2024, avoiding a costly and time-consuming trial.’
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