Smith Freed & Eberhard Partner, Ryan McLellan was retained to contest and appeal several Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) violations that were inappropriately given to his client. Ryan represented a construction manager who was overseeing a project on a dam in Oregon. One of the client's primary responsibilities was setting a safety plan for the project and supervising workers' safety on the project. Shortly after the project began, disgruntled Union ironworkers contacted OSHA and requested that an OSHA investigator come to the jobsite to investigate several alleged violations. As a result of the inspection, the OSHA investigator cited Ryan's client for several unclear and questionable violations.
Before filing the appeal, Ryan interviewed several relevant parties regarding the safety of the project site and the alleged violations. He also researched the specific OSHA violations and the OSHA guidelines for citing the construction manager. After Ryan's investigation, he wrote an appeal letter requesting a hearing to contest the citations. That letter provided a detailed explanation as to why the OSHA citations should be withdrawn. Shortly after receiving the letter and even before the hearing could be scheduled, OSHA withdrew their citations. This was a critical win for Ryan's client because the citations could have had a significant impact on the client's ability to work on future projects.