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Myth #4: OSHA Compliance Will Keep The Trial Lawyers At Bay

Maintaining strict compliance with the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) can ensure one thing and one thing only: compliance with OSHA. If no accidents result, you may count your good fortune. Safety directors and insurance company representatives can cite insurance statistics showing that OSHA Voluntary Protection Program (VPP or “STAR” ) sites in compliance with OSHA with average or worse-than-average injury rates.  But trial lawyers can site all those stats plus the average damage claim for any type of construction site accident and what the best jurisdictions are to file a case for big payouts.

Myth #5: A Construction Site Accident Can Be Avoided By Following Safety “Rules”

Over decades of workplace safety regulations, OSHA developed a series of rules for construction site accident avoidance, which are supposed to be linked to the prevention of accidents. However, no rulebook can remove the “human element”, a reality that trial lawyers recognize and profit from. Through the catch-all clause known as the “General Duty,” OSHA essentially states that if a situation arises with hazards that can be recognized but which is not covered by a rule, you have the obligation to fix the problem as though a rule existed.  A construction site attorney would make mincemeat of you in a situation like this it’s clear.

Companies that promote safe working environments have higher productivity, less worker turnover, and less production time lost due to illness and injuries. Thus, the contractor who produces the best safety results should have the best bid, since it has numerous competitive cost advantages. The contractor with the best track record of safe operation will have lower overhead costs, insurance costs, labor costs, and by definition has superior management methods and work practices. What is more, contractors with bad safety records will be recognized as dangerous to workers, and this will lead to higher worker turnover. Turnover will add to the costs of the unsafe contractor, through increased costs for training, increased production costs due to lower skill levels of his labor force, or increased accidents. A construction site lawyer will be able to determine easily through records and interviews with former employees how hard it will be to successfully take a lawsuit to trial for large damages.