Need for legal advice and representation from coach and bus operators is nothing new, but the scope of how laws and compliance requirements impact the sector changes often. In addition to core road transport-specific items, others such as wider corporate stipulations, tax, health and safety, cybersecurity, employment and more are increasingly in play.
Legal compliance sits close to the use of temporary staff, where the individual driving the operator’s vehicle is ultimately employed by a third party. That is among the reasons why Top 40 law firm Weightmans has engaged with workforce specialist C9 Recruitment to bring forward C9 Legal Assist, a full-service legal offering for operators delivered entirely by Weightmans or its associated businesses.
C9 Legal Assist is described as a straightforward proposition by Weightmans Partner and transport regulatory law specialist Elliott Kenton. Operators that use it will benefit from a free initial consultation and then if onboarded as a Weightmans client, preferential rates for legal work undertaken.
That extends to proactive and reactive needs. The firm will direct operators to its specialists in each area of law as required, which include commercial, corporate, employment, real estate, cybersecurity, and regulatory. It is not necessary to be a client of C9 Recruitment to avail of C9 Legal Assist; the offer is open to all operators in the PSV and HGV fields that are recommended by C9.
Wide spread of transport expertise behind C9 Legal Assist
Weightmans has significant capability in transport law. Central to that is Elliott. He joined the firm in 2024 and has over a decade’s experience in the transport regulatory field; his first case as a qualified lawyer involved a bus operator. Elliott also specialises in health and safety in the transport sector and business crime. Owner-operated businesses and proactive compliance are additionally part of his background.
That leaves him able to represent operators for the full range of matters that may be raised by a Traffic Commissioner (TC) at Public Inquiry, from relatively straightforward concerns around bus punctuality to complex cases that cut across work by other agencies such as the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), the police, and HMRC.
Weightmans already counts coach and bus operators large and small as clients. Working alongside Elliott in a transport regulatory capacity is Chris Powell, while specialising in HR in the transport sector is Nick Newman. Both have long experience of assisting clients in the PSV and HGV fields and in addition to Elliott, they can advise as applicable under the C9 Legal Assist offer.
Multi-regulatory interest growing
Elliott notes how from a legal standpoint, health and safety in the transport sector has become more prominent in recent years, including increased sentences for serious driving offences and HSE intervention in road incidents.
“We find that HSE now takes a close interest after a fatal accident,” he says. Beyond that, TC involvement is likely to create what he describes as a multi-regulatory process. Those can be complicated. From a management point of view, being able to place all the legal work around a multi-regulatory encounter with one law firm is beneficial.
That is one example of how the legal field for coach and bus operation is changing, but Elliott also points to the new offence of the failure to prevent fraud and upcoming law including the Employment Rights Bill and regulations around corporate responsibility as things to be aware of.
Cybersecurity is another fast-growing area. Earlier this year, a 158-year-old logistics company was brought down by ransomware. Work in cybersecurity is delivered by Weightmans business CyXcel, and Elliott notes how it is one of the biggest areas of growth for the legal practice.
“I believe that we are the only city law firm with a dedicated cybersecurity arm attached,” he says. Its work falls into proactive and reactive areas: the former deals with audit, threat intelligence, and stress testing. The latter majors on a 24/7 crisis line for use should a data breach occur.
Two like-minded organisations together
The C9 Legal Assist offer, including both the initial free consultation and preferential rates, covers direct provision of legal services by Weightmans across the breadth of practice areas it serves. It has 260 partners within its 1,700 employees and 10 offices in the UK, including one in Glasgow to act under Scottish law.
Why the alliance between C9 and Weightmans? “We had both observed the other’s ascent in the market, and we see mutual benefits from working together like this,” says C9 Recruitment Commercial Director Daniel Lunn. “We both major on compliance, and through that we can promote each other’s services by collaborating.”
Elliott notes that while the two businesses are engaged in very different fields, they share much in their approach to delivering for clients.
“I like how C9 is forward-thinking, which echoes how I work; each of us is ambitious and looking to the future, and the opportunity to bring that together is valuable. We are already well rooted across large and small operators and I believe that this offer with C9 will open our expertise to more of those.”
-
- To access C9 Legal Assist provided by Weightmans, email C9legalassist@weightmans.com or call 03301 796 345.
