Johnson & Bell, Ltd.

Johnson and Bell, Ltd.
33 West Monroe Street
Suite 2700
Chicago, IL 60603-5404
(312) 372-0770
www.johnsonandbell.com

Johnson & Bell's Construction group employs innovative and creative methods to represent private, public, local, and international clients. Our cases involve architect and engineering malpractice, construction site accidents, construction defects, contract disputes, contract drafting, insurance coverage disputes, OSHA investigations and citation proceedings, property damage claims, publicly-bid project disputes, mechanics lien disputes, risk management, and litigation related to roads and bridges.

Our clients include owners, developers, architects, engineers, general contractors, construction managers, and subcontractors in both commercial and residential construction projects. We realize the best option for our clients is often not to be involved in litigation at all. Therefore, our risk management practice focuses on evaluating safety programs and operations procedures to identify potential areas of liability. We also perform on-site seminars to educate risk and operations managers, as well as workers themselves, on a variety of safety and liability topics. These forums help our clients to accurately assess both existing risks and potential areas of liability. Our contract-drafting practice aims to protect our clients, both contractually and in terms of insurance coverage, in the event that litigation arises. In such cases, we also assist clients in tendering the defense based upon the contractual risk transfer program established.

Interacting with OSHA: Employer's Rights and Responsibilities

An OSHA Compliance Safety and Health Officer (CSHO) appears at your door to conduct an inspection, either programmed or unprogrammed. What can and should you do? This paper summarizes CSHO inspections, the types of citations that can be issued, and the available responses to those citations as well as the procedures following a contest of the citation. This paper also summarizes the rights and responsibilities of employers during CSHO inspections and after the issuance of citations, as well as available cooperative programs/agreements between employers and OSHA. The paper focuses on interaction with OSHA itself rather than State OSH plans but identifies the states that have their own approved OSH plans. To request the full paper, please contact Mr. Joseph Spitzzeri at or 312.984.0683 or Mr. Joseph B. Carini at or 312.984.0668.