The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal is set to hand down its verdicts on three solicitors accused of misconduct in handling claims against the British army. Human rights firm Leigh Day, its co-founder Martyn Day (pictured), partner Sapna Malik and their colleague Anna Crowther face numerous allegations arising out of their alleged misconduct over allegations that British soldiers tortured and murdered Iraqi detainees in the wake of the Battle of Danny Boy in 2004.

During the seven-week hearing, Patricia Robertson QC from London’s Fountain Court Chambers, who acts for Leigh Day, told the tribunal that guilty verdicts will have a ‘chilling effect on the willingness of lawyers to act in difficult cases’ and speak out on matters of public importance. She said the Ministry of Defence (MoD) had settled 300 claims related to misconduct and the firm was being prosecuted on the basis of eight out of 950 claims it had brought.

Robertson also warned that if the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s (SRA’s) prosecution succeeds, the tribunal will be ‘flooded’ with minor negligence allegations.

Lawyers for the firm also told the tribunal that senior MoD officials had an inappropriately ‘cosy’ relationship with the SRA and had put pressure on it to bring charges against the firm. Robertson accused the regulator of pandering to the MoD for its own political gain as it sought government support for independence from the Law Society and to lower the standard of proof in solicitors’ disciplinary hearings.

During his evidence, Day admitted that he ‘should have spotted’ the significance of a key document that identified his clients as Iraqi insurgents, rather than civilians. Robertson described the omission as a ‘cock-up’ and told the tribunal that the firm accepted its significance and had not deliberately overlooked it. Had the document been disclosed earlier, the £30m, five-year al-Sweady Inquiry could have been halted. ‘Lawyers do sometimes miss significant documents but it was not the nail that caused the kingdom to be lost. No one here is fired up by an agenda to do down the army,’ said Robertson.

Crowther admitted that she had destroyed the original document comprising a handwritten English translation of the Arabic version, after typing it up. She said it had been a ‘mistake’ that she ‘massively’ regrets, but said it was one that others in her position could have made.

The firm also denied paying ‘bribes’ to an Iraqi fixer despite using the word in email correspondence. All three deny any wrongdoing.