Crown Office Chambers

Specialises in defending regulatory law prosecutions, specifically health and safety, environmental regulation (including marine regulation), consumer protection and product safety. Works throughout England and Wales. Majority of time spent representing companies (and their directors) in health and safety prosecutions, typically those concerning single or multiple fatalities. Wide experience includes cases concerning the construction industry (including falls from height, structural collapse, electrocution, injuries/fatalities to employees/public), machinery and vehicular accidents (including factory machinery, MEWPs, ATVs, agricultural machinery/vehicles), workplace accidents (including factories, maritime, warehouses, care homes and agricultural, swimming pools/leisure centres), improvement and prohibition notices (including both appeals against notices and prosecutions in respect of alleged breaches), fire safety regulations (including commercial/retail premises and care homes), cases concerning consumer safety issues such as food safety (food unfit for human consumption, food hygiene cases, food labelling, animal infestations) and toy safety and coroners’ inquests into fatal workplace accidents and those with health and safety law issues. Clients typically include large construction companies, retailers, care homes, local authorities and leisure centre operators. In addition to health and safety, undertakes environmental law cases, representing corporate defendants facing prosecution for breach of environmental legislation. Such cases often involve charges under the EPA or appeals against notices served under the EPA. Typical environmental work includes defending companies charged in respect of large scale and repeated pollution of waterways, breaches of water abstraction licences, representing groundwork/construction companies in respect of alleged watercourse pollution, defending companies charged under the EPA with allowing large volumes of waste to collect on unlicensed land, prosecutions against companies and individuals under s33 and s34 EPA 1990, representing companies charged in relation to the contamination of waterways due to chemical/oil escapes, representing landfill and waste disposal companies (and often their directors) charged with breaching the terms of waste licenses. Environmental law practice includes marine regulation work, in which regularly advises and represents companies and/or individuals charged with breaches of Common Fisheries Policy and associated domestic legislation, specifically cases concerning trawler operations, logbook and landing declaration offences and cases involving the satellite monitoring of vessels.

Called 1997; Gray’s Inn.

Health and Safety Lawyers Association.