Craig Hassall KC

Ranked in Tier 1 for Business and Regulatory Crime (including Health and Safety) and Inquests & Inquiries – Legal 500 (2024)

Ranked as a Band 2 Silk for Health & Safety – Chambers & Partners (2024) – 3 years ranked

Ranked as a Band 2 Silk for Inquests & Public Inquiries – Chambers & Partners (2024)

Ranked as a Band 2 Silk for Health & Safety – Chambers & Partners (2023)

‘Craig is a fearless and technically brilliant advocate. He is a pleasure to work with and to watch.’ Legal 500 (2024)

‘Craig is knowledgeable and well-prepared; a probing and effective questioner; a persuasive and powerful presence, and above all, a pleasure to be in a case with.’ Legal 500 (2024)

“Craig is excellent and can cut through any complex case to the heart of the issues. He gives clients confidence and handles sensitive issues extremely well.” Chambers & Partners (2024)

“Craig is insightful and incisive. He is accessible, empathetic and hungry to do more in the space.” Chambers & Partners (2023)

‘Craig is a fantastic barrister. The quality of the work he produces is first class, and his advocacy is powerful but in tune with the mood of the room. Legal 500 (2023)’

‘A superstar. Craig is personable, exceptionally intelligent, driven and empathetic. Clients warm to him instantly.’ ‘an excellent silk‘ and ‘fantastic with the most vulnerable clients‘. Legal 500 (2023)

“He strikes exactly the right tone at health and safety hearings and inquests and has a good rapport with clients.” “He is calm under pressure, level-headed and strategic.” “He’s able to deal with technical, complex cases.” Chambers & Partners (2022)

“Craig is an exceptionally gifted counsel. He quickly instills confidence in clients. A silk with an eye for the details but never loses sight of the bigger picture.” Legal 500 (2022)

Craig Hassall specialises in crime, regulatory, inquests and inquiries. His inquests and inquiries practice focuses largely on investigations arising from regulated settings, such as industrial accidents and health, social and early years settings, including mental health care. He has appeared at inquests for regulators, large corporations, small businesses, professionals, individuals and bereaved families, and is particularly in demand for high-profile, complex and sensitive cases which are often linked to criminal or disciplinary proceedings. His clients benefit from the continuity of representation that he is able to provide across several jurisdictions.

Craig’s experience is largely in lengthy cases involving several interested parties, juries and Article 2 and Regulation 28 considerations.

Selected Cases

Industrial

Gleision Colliery Disaster – Craig is instructed to represent the Health & Safety Executive in the resumed inquests into the deaths of four miners in 2011. The inquests have been reopened to consider alleged failures of state regulation of the mine, following unsuccessful manslaughter prosecutions in 2013.
Re Richardson – Representation at inquest and subsequent criminal defence of a waste management company following a fatal accident at their plant. The deceased walked into the path of a reversing JCB and suffered catastrophic head injuries. Accident reconstruction and traffic management evidence.
Re Heath – Representation at inquest of a large corporate interested party following a fatal accident at their plant. The deceased was hit by a forklift truck on a zebra crossing. The conclusion was accident and no further proceedings were commenced.

Food Safety

Re James Atkinson – Craig is instructed on behalf of James’ family, following his death from anaphylaxis. James ordered a pizza through an online food delivery app and was unaware that the food delivered contained nuts to which he was allergic.

Agricultural

Re Clode – Craig was instructed to represent the Health & Safety Executive at the inquest into the death of a grandmother fatally injured by a cow on a public bridleway. He was subsequently instructed to prosecute ongoing criminal proceedings against the partnership responsible for the management of the farm.
HSE –v- P – Representation at inquest and in criminal proceedings of a self-employed farm worker following the death of a landowner killed by a shard of barbed wire expelled from the defendant’s tractor-mounted flail mower. District Judge persuaded to retain jurisdiction despite the fatality.

Health, Social and Early Years Care

Manchester Arena Inquiry – Craig was instructed to represent the interests of the Manchester Teaching Hospital NHS Trust in the Manchester Arena Inquiry. He drafted the Trust’s application for interested person status, following the service of expert evidence by lawyers representing the family of Saffie-Rose Roussos. Craig challenged the opinions of those expert witnesses at the inquiry. The final report of the inquiry made no criticism of the Trust, its medics or its disaster planning work.
Re SL – representation of care company at inquest into service user’s death and in concurrent criminal proceedings brought by the Care Quality Commission.
Re NS – representation of domiciliary care company at inquest into a service user’s death. The Coroner made no findings against the company, despite criticisms from other interested persons and excluded the client from the prevention of future deaths report.
Re LH – representation of domiciliary care company at inquest into a service user’s death. Complex neurology and endocrinology evidence. The Coroner was persuaded to reject the findings of the pathologist and made exculpatory remarks in relation to the client, despite strident criticisms made by the deceased’s family.

Military

Re CM – Craig represented the Health & Safety Executive at the inquest into the death of a soldier who was killed in a training exercise by a colleague who mistook him for a target. Potential criminal proceedings to follow.

Other

Re RY – Craig represented all three defendants charged with preventing the burial of a body. The prosecution accepted that each defendant was not guilty by reason of insanity but proposed to continue with a trial of issue, notwithstanding that each defendant believed that the deceased was still alive, and therefore that there was no body to bury. In response to Craig’s application for a stay on the basis of abuse of process, the prosecution was discontinued. Craig went on to represent the family, pro bono, at the inquest into the death and secured an open conclusion that the cause of death was unascertained.