Fire Safety Law

[jayjay]

Worth a visit

This site is provided by Warren Spencer who is a specialist in fire safety law. He practices with Blackhurst Budd LLP and in 2009 was short-listed for the Law Society Solicitor of the Year Award. He currently acts as an agent prosecutor for Lancashire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Merseyside and Cheshire Fire and Rescue Services and advises those in Hereford and Worcester.

http://www.firesafetylawyer.co.uk/

[AnthonyB]

I agree, an interesting read!

[colin todd]

Not sure that there is great merit in being a prosecutor of the innocent and the uneducated, but if thats what turns you on.....

[Clevelandfire 3]

Really col? intresting you said that. see the thing is there is this great thing called a court of law. it aint the prosecution that sends you down. so if you read the article about the landly lord let me ask you a question. would you let your son or daughter stop at one of his hmos and if not why not. and do you agree that solicitors should threaten fire services if they issue notices. col it aint quite like it used to be out there enforcers follow lots of fluffy guidance to tell em not to pick on people these days. chillax.

[colin todd]

Clevey, tell that to the people who are brought before courts of law and subjected to anguish, cost and reputational risk only to find the charges dropped because they were unfounded in the first place. Ask the fire alarm engineer who had all the charges dropped against him once he paid several thousand pounds for an expert witness report, which luckily Clevey you paid for as a taxpayer because he got all his costs back from public funds.

If Wallace had not retreated, Cleveland would be part of Scotland and you would understand the fairness of a procurator fiscal bringing prosecutions, and see why it is that there has never been a prosecution in scotland following a routine audit by the fire and rescue service since the reform of legislation in 2006.

[Clevelandfire 3]

now then Col firstly you didnt answer my question. secondly i dont disagree with what you say in your post but you should have made it much clearer about where your dismay stemmed from. if you are gonna make statements like that you have to back it up. so has this particular solicitor been involved in persecuting innocent victims.

[colin todd]

Clevey, I will leave it to you to draw your own conclusions, but, on a point of accuracy, it is not solicitors that make the decision regarding prosecution, but, in England, the fire and rescue authority.  In every single  expert wtiness case in which I have been a defence expert witness the fire and rescue authoirty have dropped some of the charges because they were founded on sand. If I were to list the allegations, even you would find them laughable, as would the PF in Scotland.

[Clevelandfire 3]

But surely mr or mrs solicitor person should be advising the fire authority and say you will be laughed out of court if you take that forward.

[colin todd]

Yes they should. Same as you should be offering to not be paid as much this year.

[Clevelandfire 3]

Yes they should. Same as you should be offering to not be paid as much this year.

should i col? are you going to do same? im a self employed assessor col. bit like you are.

what i dont understand about all this solicitor malarki you mentioned is no fire brigade as far as im aware has a chest of cash to pay court costs with if they lose a case. it comes out of their budget for putting fire engines and firelighters in fire stations. unless they have a solicitor who agree to no win no fee. so losing has severe consequences so cant see them going to court on a wim.

[Tom Sutton]

what i dont understand about all this solicitor malarki you mentioned is no fire brigade as far as im aware has a chest of cash to pay court costs with if they lose a case. it comes out of their budget for putting fire engines and firelighters in fire stations. unless they have a solicitor who agree to no win no fee. so losing has severe consequences so cant see them going to court on a wim.

Not necessarily true, we had a case were a shop choose to involve a QC so we took QC advice and the result was, we were advised not to continue. Costs were awarded against us, but were paid from public funds.

[Kelsall]

The Scottish frs officer I spoke with wanted more prosecutions as he viewed them as a part of policing the legislation. A deterant that needs to be in place to allow others to learn from mistakes made by other duty holders.

Don't get me wrong I think the frs don't get it right at times but there has to be some form of punishment if there is fault. If you only ever got a gentle word about watching your speed from traffic cops when you got caught doing 45 in 30; what would people do?

Bypass the courts and give the frs powers to issue on the spot fines for some offences would be a good option in the uk. No fire risk assessment.....£1000 fine!

[colin todd]

Kel,  I got a gentle word for doing 94 on the M3.  They asked me if I would mind keeping my speed down to 70 while I remained in the county of Hampshire, so I did.