William Whittall for 25 charges of alleged health and safety failures associated with the accident. Pike River Coal The receivers for Pike River Coal Limited advised that the company would not enter a plea to the charges. In July 2013, Pike River Coal was ordered to pay $110,000 to each of the victims' families and fined $760,000. In the end it did not pay the fine and only paid $5,000 to each family, saying it did not have the money. Valley Longwall International On 31 July 2012, the contracting company Valley Longwall International pleaded guilty in the Greymouth District Court to three health and safety charges. On 26 October 2012, Valley Longwall International, who had lost three employees in the mine, was fined $46,800. Peter Whittall Peter Whittall did not appear in court for his 12 health and safety charges and his case was adjourned to October 2012. On 25 October 2012, Whittall entered not guilty pleas. In December 2013, charges were dropped against Whittall, citing a lack of evidence. Instead, Whittall and Pike River Coal offered a voluntary payment on behalf of the directors and officers of the company to the families of the men and two survivors. Some family members of the deceased miners criticised the decision to drop charges, and in August 2016, two family members sought a judicial review of the decision. On 23 November 2017 the New Zealand Supreme Court ruled that the arrangement by WorkSafe to drop all charges against Whittall, conditional on payment of $3.41 million, was an agreement to prevent the prosecution and was therefore unlawful. Police had already decided not to press criminal charges against Whittall. Whittall's lawyer, Stuart Grieve QC, had proposed a voluntary payment instead of a plea bargain, conditional on WorkSafe agreeing not to proceed against Whittall. The court said: "If accepted, this proposal would undoubtedly have constituted a bargain to stifle prosecution. On 23 November 2020, the New Zealand Law Society confirmed in a letter to former lawyer Christopher Harder, who lodged a formal complaint in October 2020, that the matter was being referred to a Standards Committee "for consideration of commencing an investigation of its own motion". The complaint, viewed by the New Zealand Herald, claims that Stuart Grieve QC and then Crown Prosecutor for Christchurch Brent Stanaway brought the legal profession into disrepute by entering into an "unlawful agreement to pay money for the dropping