What a Construction Safety Expert Actually Does on a Case
By David Wright, IamWright Safety Consulting
When someone gets badly hurt on a construction site, the lawsuit that follows usually comes down to a handful of questions. Who was in charge of safety on that job? What did the rules require? Did anyone follow them, and if they didn’t, did it make a difference? Attorneys on both sides need honest answers to those questions, and the answers have to stand up when opposing counsel starts pushing on them.
I recently wrapped up expert work on a construction injury case. I can’t talk about the parties, the facts, or how it turned out. What I can do is walk through how I handle this kind of work, so attorneys have a sense of what they get when they call me.
I read everything first
Every case starts with the record, and I mean all of it. Contracts and subcontracts. The site safety plan and the hazard analyses. Daily reports, inspection logs, toolbox talk sign-in sheets, training records. Incident reports, photos, video, witness statements. The OSHA file if there is one. Deposition transcripts from the superintendent, the foreman, the crew, and whoever was running safety.
I don’t form an opinion until I’ve been through it. The attorney who hires me needs to know what the evidence shows, including the parts that hurt their client. I would rather give bad news in week two than have it come out at deposition. That early honesty is often the most useful thing I bring to a case, because it lets counsel make real decisions about how to proceed.
Holding the job up against the standard
Most of my analysis is comparing what happened on the site to what the regulations and normal industry practice called for. In construction that starts with OSHA’s construction standards in 29 CFR Part 1926. A few sections come up on nearly every case I review.
29 CFR 1926.20(b) requires the employer to have a program of frequent and regular inspections of the site, materials, and equipment by a competent person. Put simply, somebody qualified has to be out there looking for hazards before they hurt someone.
29 CFR 1926.21(b)(2) requires the employer to teach each worker how to recognize and avoid the unsafe conditions on their job. A sign-in sheet from a generic safety talk doesn’t always meet that bar.
29 CFR 1926.32(f) defines a competent person as someone who can identify existing and predictable hazards and who has the authority to fix them right away. I see a lot of cases where the person on site could spot the problem but had no real power to stop the work. That second half of the definition matters.
Depending on what happened, I may also be looking at fall protection under Subpart M, excavations under Subpart P, or scaffolds under Subpart L, plus ANSI/ASSP consensus standards, manufacturer instructions, the contract language, and the company’s own written program.
On sites with several contractors, the big question is often who controlled the hazard. OSHA’s Multi-Employer Citation Policy (CPL 02-00-124) sorts employers into creating, exposing, correcting, and controlling roles, and each carries different responsibilities. Getting those roles straight can shape the whole case.
Writing the report
My reports get read by two very different groups. The lawyers will pick apart every sentence. The judge or jury needs to follow it without a safety background. So I state each opinion plainly and tie it to the evidence and the standard behind it. I explain technical points in normal language. I address the other possible explanations instead of pretending they don’t exist, and I keep a clear line between what the regulation requires and what good practice would add on top of that. A report that doesn’t overreach is a lot harder to tear apart.
Deposition
An opinion is only worth something if it holds up under questioning. Before a deposition I go back through the record, think through where opposing counsel is likely to go, and make sure I can point to the support for every opinion I’ve given. In the chair, I answer the question that was asked, I stay inside my expertise, and if the evidence doesn’t show something, I say so.
Why the field time matters
I’ve spent my career on jobsites, not just reading about them. I direct construction safety and health for a national engineering and construction firm. Since 2016 I’ve been a lead instructor and adjunct professor at an OSHA Training Institute Education Center, teaching the OSHA 500, 510, and related courses. I’ve done hands-on work in fall protection, trenching and excavation, confined space entry and rescue, and water and wastewater construction.
That means I know what the standards say and I know how a job actually runs. I know what schedule pressure does to a crew, where supervision tends to slip, and what the difference looks like between a safety program people live by and one that sits in a binder in the trailer. Juries can tell when an expert has actually been out there.
How I can help
I work with both plaintiff and defense counsel on construction and industrial cases. That can mean an early look at the liability picture before you’ve spent much money, a full standards and causation review, a written expert report, deposition and trial testimony, or quieter consulting work like helping with discovery requests, deposition outlines, and responses to the other side’s expert.
If you’ve got a case involving a fall, a trench, a confined space, utility work, or another construction injury, give me a call or send an email. A short conversation is usually enough to tell whether I’m the right fit.
David Wright
IamWright Safety Consulting
IamWright.com | David.Wright@iamwright.com
