LEGAL ADVICE

From the Experts in Fire Safety Legislation

Our Services – to the Legal Profession

We can undertake the role of Expert Witness using the fire engineer most appropriately qualified and competent for your particular case.

We can provide experts with a fire service background and many years of experience as specialist fire safety officers, and also fire engineers with high academic qualifications (up to PhD level) depending on the expertise required.

We are fully aware of our legal responsibilities in this capacity and our duty to assist the court in reaching an informed decision. We understand and seek to comply with the ‘Cresswell’ principles of expert evidence...

“An expert witness should state the facts or assumptions upon which his opinion is based. He should not omit to consider material facts which could detract from his concluded opinion.”


Production of Written Evidence/Reports

Our reports are subject to our ISO 9001 Quality Assurance process and are checked by our expert in written English and a competent Fire Engineer before issue. This process ensures that our written evidence is clear, accurate, and professionally sound.

Case Advisor

We offer an advisory service on the interpretation and application of fire safety standards. This will typically involve the review of Enforcement Notices issued by a Fire Authority.

Peer Review

We can review any fire safety report and provide an expert opinion on its findings and recommendations.

Our Services – to You as an Employer

• If you have been issued with an Enforcement Notice by the Fire Authority, you need to have competent, independent advice – quickly.
• Correspondence from the Fire Authority, in whatever form, should make it clear that you may enter into a discussion with them, with a view to providing an alternative means of satisfying the legislation they consider you have failed to satisfy.
• We can review the notice and, where it appears to us that the requirements are too onerous, we can challenge them informally with the office concerned in the first instance.
• Where it is clear that your premises do not meet a reasonable standard, we will gain a thorough understanding of your premises and the way you operate before suggesting a solution that provides you with an adequate level of fire safety, but minimises any impact on your premises or bank balance.
  
• If, in the unlikely event we are not able to reach an agreement with the Fire Authority on what is reasonable, we can advise you on your options. Should you choose to appeal against any aspect of the statutory notice, we can provide you with our expert opinion. (In our experience, it is unlikely that you will have to go to court where we are acting for you.)
• Some of our former fire service engineers combine considerable practical and technical knowledge, with experience of fire service enforcement practice to mediate on your behalf and avoid the continuation of a prosecution – even when it appears that a court appearance is inevitable.