OSHA appeals and workplace safety

Overview

It is increasingly imperative to focus on the health and safety of your workplace. In recent years, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has greatly heightened its emphasis on enforcement and citation issuance. With our OSHA legal team, you’ll benefit from years of experience and knowledge gained from working with clients in a variety of industries. The ultimate goal and focus is on the health and safety of your workplace. We customize our approach to meet your needs, and work to provide checks and balances against OSHA’s power through appeals and consulting.

Our firm is committed to helping you comply with the large variety of occupational safety and health requirements, which include:

• Safe excavation and trenching
• Electrical wiring and design, electrocution hazards
• Traffic control
• Emergency response
• Hearing protection
• Air contaminants
• Indoor quality
• Ergonomic hazards
• Pinch points
• Ladders/scaffolds/guardrails
• Signs
• Lockout/tagouts
• Open tanks
• Welding
• Trenching
• Blood borne pathogen exposures

If you are facing an OSHA citation, our team has the experience and expertise to defend your business. Our clients have successfully appealed violations or penalties that were either unwarranted or excessive as a result of inspections – either planned or unplanned – or in response to a work complaint or accident. We are proud to fight for your rights and have an impressive history defending our clients – working on their behalf beyond court appeal hearings and Court of Appeals.

Want an example of a case we took above and beyond? As a result of successful litigation pioneered by our team, Michigan’s OSHA has changed its practice of preventing full disclosure of its investigation materials. MIOSHA is now required to provide full, unredacted investigation files at the outset of an appeal.

The construction and manufacturing industries face unique challenges and requirements when it comes to workplace safety and environmental health. In response to the greater enforcement measures you face, we have developed a niche practice that focuses specifically on your needs and the challenges you face. We not only can assist in your defense or appeal of a citation or violation. We can counsel your company regarding the development and implementation of health and safety procedures and best practices, and prepare you for those unexpected OSHA inspections or investigations.

Construction and manufacturing experience includes working with some of the region’s largest public and private construction entities on matters such as:

• Appealing citations issued by OSHA's Construction Safety & Health Divisions and OSHA state equivalents
• Representing on serious matters involving accidental injuries and fatalities relative to trenching and excavation collapses, electrocutions and traffic incidents
• Defending and defeating multiple “willful” citations issued against clients
• Challenging OSHA’s practice of relying on a company’s history as the sole basis for the issuance of a willful citation
• Defending against citations from OSHA’s General Industry Safety & Health Division regarding industrial hygiene and environmental health