Temple Garden Chambers is a leading common law set based in London and The Hague.
With excellence from top to bottom Chambers provides a first class service in a number of different fields.
Temple Garden Chambers is a leading common law set based in London and The Hague.
With excellence from top to bottom Chambers provides a first class service in a number of different fields.
08/05/2025
Dominic Adamson KC, leading Harriet Gilchrist, instructed by Mark London, Kathryn Kligerman and Yaasica Hamilton-Haye at Devonshires represented two corporate defendants in a fire safety prosecution relating to a fire which resulted in the near total destruction of an ‘Extra Care’ home (comprising of 132 flats).
On day two of a nine-week trial at Chester Crown Court the Prosecution offered no evidence causing the prosecution to collapse. Dominic and Harriet’s clients faced 10 counts on the trial indictment. At the commencement of the trial the four corporate defendants argued that the evidence relied upon by the Prosecution was opinion evidence of an expert nature and that the prosecution had failed to comply with the Criminal Procedure Rules applicable to expert evidence and lacked impartiality and independence.
Having initially maintained that the arguments advanced by the defendants were unsubstantiated, on day two the Prosecution conceded that the arguments advanced were correct. As a consequence, it offered no evidence on all counts on the indictment. HHJ Leeming subsequently indicated that he would have ruled in the defendants’ favour.
At the outset of the case, Dominic and Harriet’s clients had faced over 30 counts relating to the two Extra Care homes. They successfully persuaded the prosecution not to pursue numerous counts after dismissal arguments. Subsequently, they successfully resisted an attempt by the Prosecution to revive certain counts relating to the second Extra Home.
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