A.C.T. National to take #eventprofs to court for third time

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(Prosecuting barrister, David Campbell, talking to Event Industry News after the second mock trial in London.)

Event safety management company, A.C.T. National, is gearing up for yet another eagerly anticipated mock trial set to take place in 2020.

The trial will take place in February 2020 and aims to offer a real-life demonstration to event professionals about the legal procedures that follow an incident on site.

The health and safety company has organised the mock trial after receiving encouraging feedback from its first two sessions held in Birmingham and London.

Chris Woodford, operations director at A.C.T. National, said: “The purpose of these trials is to educate event managers and organisers on what would happen if an accident occurred on site. We don’t want to teach them the law, but we do want to enlighten them on the court processes.”

The mock trial will take place with three practising barristers acting as the prosecution, the defence and the judge, and will follow the usual procedures of a real-life court case. During the day, the barristers will explain the reasons behind each procedure and answer questions from the audience (which acts as the jury).

“We hope to educate the event professionals, who will then educate their employees, who then might educate the contractors and sub-contractors,” Woodford continued. “Some of the feedback we got from last year was that the participants loved being actively involved in the process. They could pick the brains of these highly experienced barristers.”

Stressing the importance of having appropriate health and safety procedures onsite, Chris explained these safety systems cannot remove responsibility from those in a managerial role, but they can mitigate the liability if followed correctly. This could save an event professional from a hefty fine, or even a prison sentence.

Chris continued to explain that the cases used in each of their trials were picked from real-life court cases: “People say, ‘but that would never happen’, and then they’re shocked to learn that, actually, these were real cases. These events have already happened. We just changed the names and the places.”

Commenting after the last edition of the mock trial in London, prosecuting barrister, David Campbell, said: “This isn’t a lecture. This is about engaging with people, making them feel part of the process so they can ask questions relevant to them.”

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Molly Hookings
Author: Molly Hookings

Molly joined the editorial team in March 2019. She has several years’ experience working in broadcast and journalism, as well as marketing and PR. Past experience includes working for the BBC and independent publishing houses. If you have a story you think Molly might be interested in, please email: molly@eventindustrynews.com