Eversheds International
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Health and Safety
Introduction
Today's challenges
Unlike other forms of crime, health and safety offences are rarely committed deliberately. Unfortunately, proof of intent, knowledge or neglect is not a pre-requisite to prosecution. The HSE and other enforcement agencies (including, on occasion, the Police) enforce the law with a presumption in favour of prosecution.
No matter how conscientious an organisation might be, accidents and incidents occasionally happen. These may lead to an investigation by the Police, HSE or a local authority.
The response to those incidents and subsequent investigations has a significant influence on any subsequent enforcement action, not only in terms of whether action is taken but also, crucially, how such action may be pursued.
How we can help
We have the largest and most experienced team of recognised regulatory lawyers in Europe. We routinely represent clients in corporate criminal defence and civil proceedings, and in corporate and property transactional work. We specialise in health and safety at work as well as covering other areas of regulatory work such as food safety, trading standards and healthcare.
We can draw on the experience of former regulators, as well as many years experience in incident response, from the initial stages of investigation all the way to representation in any court proceedings.
We are currently acting on the following matters:
- Buncefield
- Potters Bar train crash
- Morecambe Bay helicopter crash
- Chester-le-Street inflatable artwork fatality.
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