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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 will explore 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 will review audit and investigation and report-writing strategies and best practices. We will also review OSHA’s policy on self-audits and the reality of OSHA’s use of voluntary self-audits during inspections. And we will review best practices to manage MSHA’s unlimited lookback period for enforcement.

Participants in this webinar will learn:

• 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

Oct 5, 2023 01:00 PM in Eastern Time (US and Canada)