I probably made the situation here sound more simplistic than it really is. I was thinking of a case that appeared a few years ago in which a workman (I hesitate to use the term electrician) wired a remodeled kitchen.
Don't ask me how on earth he managed it, but he somehow left exposed metalwork hot instead of grounded. Twice the owners called him back, reporting that they were getting mild shocks when they touched it, and twice he "tested" it and said that nothing was wrong. Then someone came in with bare/wet feet or whatever and was killed. He was charged with manslaughter.
But I think that's a rare case of somebody being brought to book. With no permits etc. and and virtually no paper trail (at least in most residential work), I'd bet that in many cases by the time any sort of accident happens nobody has any idea who was responsible for the work. Just another statistic chalked up to "electrical fault."
I'm no lawyer, but I'm sure that in the case of an apprentice working under direction from somebody who is supposedly knowledgable, that a large proportion of the responsibility would be aimed squarely at the person in charge, unless it was something so simple that even a greenhorn apprentice should have realized that what he was doing was dangerous.
[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 06-16-2002).]
