On Thursday, October 5, 2023, Eric J. Conn and Nicholas W. Scala presented a webinar regarding Tips and Strategies for Safety-Related Incident Investigation and Audit Reports.

Safety and health audits and accident or near-miss investigations are invaluable tools to identify hazards at a workplace and improve safety, but what happens when a government regulator or plaintiffs’ attorney demands copies of the reports and/or recommendations from the audit or investigation? When not done carefully or under attorney-client privilege, audit and investigation reports can serve as admissions and/or a roadmap for OSHA and MSHA investigators or plaintiffs’ attorneys regarding areas of non-compliance. This in turn can create a disincentive for employers to audit their facilities at all or conduct thorough investigations.

This webinar explored the benefits of conducting audits and investigations at the direction of counsel so as to improve safety and compliance while also protecting the company and management from adverse use by 3rd party litigants or regulators. We reviewed audit and investigation and report-writing strategies and best practices. We also reviewed OSHA’s policy on self-audits and the reality of OSHA’s use of voluntary self-audits during inspections. And we reviewed best practices to manage MSHA’s unlimited lookback period for enforcement.

Participants in this webinar learned:

• • Implementing attorney-client privileged audit programs and investigations
  • Key steps to conduct a thorough investigation
  • Maintaining privilege over results of audits and investigations, while still effectively implementing findings
  • How OSHA, MSHA or 3rd party litigants can use self-audits and inspections against an employer
  • OSHA and MSHA statute of limitations and policies on lookback for audit and incident and/or near miss reports

We are pleased to share these links to a copy of the slides – Privileged Audits and Investigations (Oct. 2023) and a recording of the webinar.

If you would like to be registered for the entire 2023 series, click here to send us an email request and we will get you registered.

This was the 10th webinar event in Conn Maciel Carey LLP’s 2023 OSHA Webinar Series.  Click here to view our full schedule and detailed program descriptions for all of the webinars scheduled for the 2023 OSHA Webinar Series.

If you missed any of our past webinars in our annual OSHA Webinar Series, view our OSHA Webinar Library to access of our webinar recordings. Also, click here to subscribe to our YouTube channel and get an email notification when new recordings become available.