Workplace Safety

Defended managers of a national manufacturer in a lawsuit claiming willful injury to an employee in a workplace fire.

Representation a national energy company and its construction-industry subsidiary on OSHA compliance and represented them in connection with disputed OSHA citations, reaching a positive resolution of the matter.

Representation of a fiber cement building products manufacturer in the preparation of extensive written comments on proposed rulemaking issued by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to lower the permissible exposure limit for silica.

Representation of an international producer and distributor of raw materials and engineered products in a special assessment proceeding under the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act. The client and two managers were subject to a section 110 ‘special assessment’ proceeding, which should incur penalties in excess of $100,000 each based on alleged ‘knowing’ violations of certain MSHA safety standards. We were able to demonstrate a number of errors in the allegations, and settled the matter with the proceedings dismissed as to the managers and the company agreeing to $5,000 penalties for simple violations.

Representation of a power utility company in connection with citations under the Washington Industrial Safety and Health Act (the state parallel to OSHA) in relation to alleged improper shipbreaking activities and lead exposure. As lead counsel for the power utility, we identified a number of jurisdictional and other defenses and brought a motion for summary judgment to dismiss the citations.  The matter then settled, with all willful citations reduced or vacated and the total fines reduced by over 80%.