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Posts with the 'Corporate Manslaughter' tag
Geotechnical Firm Found Guilty of Corporate Manslaughter
The BBC reported on February 15th that Cotswold Geotechnical Holdings has been found guilty of corporate manslaughter in the first ever conviction under the Corporate Manslaughter Act 2007.
This is big news as it has taken so long for anyone to be brought to justice. Perhaps now this case has come to light, with consequences, clients will take the act more seriously now.
For more on this see Company guilty of Cheltenham geologist's manslaughter
Charges dropped in first Corporate Manslaughter Trial
The SHP (Safety & Health Practitioner) has stated that the charges against the director have been dropped in the first corporate manslaughter trial. This has raised concerns as Sally Roff, partner and head of the safety, health and environment group at law firm Beachcroft LLP, believes that the Corporate Manslaughter Act has been tainted by the latest delay in court proceedings.
The long-awaited trial of Cotswold Geotechnical Holdings Ltd under the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 has been adjourned again until 24 January 2011. Sally Roff also stated that "The Corporate Manslaughter Act has become tarnished with delay, both by the time it took to come to the statute books and now in its implementation."
This is a shame as most of us had such high hopes of this particular act providing a better mechanism of taking those responsible to 'task' over their negligence. We can now only await the outcome, but one has to feel for those families that have been affected; surely they would like to have some sort of closure sooner rather than later?
-- Click to read the full article
Source: SHP
Corporate Manslaughter - first case
Our colleagues at Callsafe report in their latest newsletter that the first Corporate Manslaughter case to be brought to court is to be tried in February 2010. The case against Gloucestershire-based Cotswold Geotechnical Holdings is due to the death of one of their Junior Geologists in September 2008. He was killed when a pit in which he was taking soil samples as part of a site survey collapsed on him.
The company has been charged under the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Killing Act 2007 with the unlawful killing of their employee by gross negligence. Director, Peter Eaton, is also charged with gross negligence manslaughter and for a breach of s37 of the HASAWA.
Although the trial is set to take place at Bristol Crown Court, opening on 23 February 2010 and is likely to last six weeks, the company and the Director have yet to enter a plea. The plea hearing, originally planned for August, is now due to take place in October; subsequent to the defendants' barrister requesting more time.
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