Legal help withdrawn from anti-epilepsy case

Legal help has been retracted from a seminal case against a pharmaceutical company, where a group of families had been claiming damages due to disabilities arising as a result of an anti-epilepsy drug.

The decision was taken in the wake of the spending review, which reduced the budget for legal services and may make it harder to receive aid in the future.

Sanofi Aventis was due to defend the drug against the claims, after around 80 families blamed the medication for causing birth defects such as spina bifida and learning difficulties.

Cancelling legal help makes it unlikely the case will continue, as the costs of bringing it to court are prohibitively high.

At least £3 million has already be spent on the case by the Legal Services Commission, the Guardian reports, with the subsequent termination leading one family to accuse the body of rendering the process "a complete waste of time and money".

Published by Phil Hammond