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Brad Hiles

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Serving businesses for 35 years, Brad has a national practice in the areas of OSHA/MSHA defense, labor and environmental law. He represents clients primarily in the manufacturing, energy/natural resource and food/agriculture sectors. Within these industries, he has developed a reputation for rapid, in-person responses to workplace fatalities or catastrophes during government investigations. He is commonly called upon to “triage” OSHA and MSHA citations within 24 hours to enable clients to formulate settlement strategies.

On December 17, 2015, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that its Environmental and Natural Resources Division (ENRD) will increase efforts to work with the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to investigate and prosecute crimes related to workplace violations. According to the DOJ’s Deputy Attorney General Sally Quillian Yates, “On an average day in America, 13 workers die on the job, thousands are injured and 150 succumb to diseases they obtained from exposure to carcinogens and other toxic and hazardous substances while they worked.” As such, Ms. Yates said the DOJ is “redoubling its efforts to hold accountable those who unlawfully jeopardize workers’ health and safety.”

Hidden away in the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 (2015 Budget), signed by President Obama on November 2, 2015, is an obscure provision that will raise the maximum penalties for Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) violations for the first time since 1990. The financial ramifications of the significantly higher penalties may change how employers evaluate whether to contest OSHA citations.