An immigration firm falsely accused by The Sun newspaper of touting for business amongst migrants arriving on boats has accepted a settlement.
The newspaper faced a defamation claim by solicitor Uma Rajasundram and her firm Milestone Solicitors following publication of the article in 2020. The story has now been taken down and replaced with a clarification online.
The Sun has also reached a financial settlement with Rajasundram for a five-figure sum to reimburse her costs.
Billed as an exclusive under the banner headline ‘ASYLUM PRICE LIST: Lawyers’ legal aid charges for migrant cases’, the original story claimed that ‘activist’ lawyers were touting a price list to help migrants stay in the UK. The article claimed that these activities would cost thousands of pounds in legal aid and quoted a ‘Whitehall source’ as saying that lawyers were ‘chasing dinghies to get taxpayers’ cash for keeping illegal immigrants in our country’. Condemnatory comments were provided by a Conservative MP and home secretary Priti Patel.
The article was illustrated with a full-length photograph of Rajasundram wearing a sari, along with pictures and a video showing a dinghy filled with migrants from Turkey being turned away by Greek locals.
Almost 150 reader comments were posted under the article, many of which were racist and threatening to Rajasundram and her staff. One such comment expressed ‘hope something really nasty happens to these lawyers’, while others used the solicitor’s photograph and name to allege she and her staff were foreign and therefore suspect.
The accusation that Milestone was touting a price list of legal aid charges was incorrect, and in fact came from a list of private fees the firm was compelled to publish under SRA transparency rules. These fees had no relevance to Milestone’s legal aid work.
The Sun agreed firstly to remove the comments and subsequently the entire article. A permanent statement on the newspaper’s website says: 'We have been asked to make clear that charging rates which solicitor Ms Rajasundram and her firm advertise on their website for immigration work are for private clients only, not for legal aid.
‘We did not and do not suggest that Ms Rajasundram and colleagues act in any way outside the law or professional conduct and we are happy again to make this clear to readers.’
Commenting following the settlement, Rajasundram said the article had falsely accused the firm of a serious breach of professional ethics. ‘The gratuitous way that it chose to illustrate the article with a photo of me in a sari made the threatening and racist comments that it published underneath the article only too predictable, and left my team fearing for their safety.
‘This article was an example of unjustified newspaper attacks on legal aid lawyers working hard to secure access to justice for the most vulnerable in society. Legal aid solicitors should not have to face such vitriol just for doing their job. I hope this claim, and what it has cost The Sun to settle it, will help discourage irresponsible journalism that misrepresents our work.’
Rajasundram and her firm instructed Paul Turner of Barnes Harrild & Dyer and Mark Henderson of Doughty Street Chambers in the claim.
