Posted By Safety110 Hello All, I have been carrying out construction H&S consultancy for some time and work for a company that specialises in Britains most exceptionally pretige housing market. I have the knowledge to work comfortly in this area but want to try and move on to something more juicy. With regards to getting into the Environment or other industries in H&S, well this just does not interest me as I have done a spell offshore and I am getting dipondant to it all. What I was searching around for was to do a law course that could get me in to working in defending all these "No Win. No Fee" cases rather than join them. I know these are mostly case law but, what I find is that most of the lawyers out there just mention a few regulations and go for the jugular and usually the defending lawyes just agree because of there actual level of understanding the ACOP's etc. Is there much work out there for legal defence of this type? If so, what would the best course be that could be cqrried out in the South East area on a part time basis? Thanks for the help in advance.

Posted By ClaireL No Win No Fee are compensation claims based in civil law not criminal law (which is what the H&S ACOP's are relevant to). There are a lack of lawyers defending companies against HSE prosecution with sufficient knowledge to do the job properly (should have heard some of the rubbish they came out with when I was prosecutor!). But you would need to be a lawyer to do that job. As for No Win No Fee, from my experience the insurance company decides on whether to defend or not and that is usually based on whether they think it is finacially worth defending. Again I think you need to be a lawyer. To be honest I don't think you can just do a bit of law course, I think you will need to be a fully qualified lawyer. So if you want to change career then go for it but that means a degree. You can then use your knowledge of H&S law to defend companies against prosecution and / or compensation claims.

Posted By peter gotch 1 Claire, Depends on the circumstances of the prosecution. With my experience as an ex HSE Inspector, and as expert witness, I can assure you that there are some very competent solicitors [and Counsel] when it comes to HSE prosecutions. This was not always the case, so that I have similar experiences to yours. ....and when it comes to the crunch and Counsel, solicitor and defendant assess the risks of going to trial and finally decide on a basis of plea of guilty, that is substantially at odds with the prosecution case summary, it does not help when HSE send out press releases or update the prosecutions database with comment that some of us know is substantially untrue [and where the defence have pointed this out in Court]. As word gets out as to the inaccuracies of HSE commentary it is liable to bring HSE's reputation into disrepute. "It appears that his safety device failed to operate" - zero prosecution evidence to justify this. "He had not been trained as a ....er" - I've got a copy of his certificate in my office. "The method statement was inadequate" - I've got the joint experts' statement instructed by the Court where prosecution and defence experts agreed that the method statement was substantially OK. "The Court heard that he was ....ing when the accident occurred" - au contraire, the Court heard that he had finished this task and had moved at least 12m away from the scene, before returning for reason not established. So, when you read the "In court" in SHP, Safety Management or wherever, treat what HSE say with a LARGE pinch of salt!! Safety110 - Your chance of getting any work out of these competent law practices is slim unless you can demonstrate a very strong track record of accident investigation [My own includes some 40 fatals, inter alia] and preferably witness box experience [Been there twice so far this year]. No win, no fee litigation - somewhat lesser competence expectations but Karen has pointed out some of the pitfalls, and exactly the same principles as to limits on legal aid apply in England, Wales and Scotland as in N.I. Regards, Peter

Posted By Raymond Rapp Safety I am currently in my final year in the MA in Health, Safety and Environmental Law with Salford University. This degree will provide you with good grounding in health and safety law and of course a qualifiation. I am sure there is a need of specialist advice but I am not aware of too many roles. Most lawyers are able to read and understand legislation, case law etc, but just like many judges do not have a good knowledge of health, safety and environmental management issues. Perhaps when cases come before the court for corporate manslaughter we may see a need for specialist advice - but don't hold your breath! Ray

Posted By willhiem interesting topic, though this is a little different and going off course a bit. recently i was looking at a college course which is aimed at helping pass the first round of legal exams for entrance into the law societies course. while researching all of this i noticed some of the big firms have health and safety deptartments now, i also noticed that there is a health and safety lawyers association, so i looked into this a bit, and the persons in the h & s deptartments profiles etc, a lot of who've got great experience (previous public body experience as reps / inspectors, qualifications associated with h & s etc) there are the few who just seem to be part of the association to have it on their profile (but thats always the case!!) I just thought it was interesting. Though they still havent replied to my email asking how hard it would be for me to get a training contract and work specifically in the h & s side, but i guess you'll get that also!! Now back to topic, most claims / cases i've been involved in have used 'forensic engineers' not quite sure of their background, but as far as investigating and giving evidence they were fairly thorough.