On October 8th, Attorney Meredith Guerrero gave a presentation on Employment Law at the GHCC. She introduced the best practices for dealing with employees and went in depth about immigration authorization issues, payroll best practices, and legally compliant policies and procedures. Meredith serves on the Board of Directors for the GHCC and graduated in the 2018 class of the Georgia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce's Cultivating Hispanic Leadership Institute. ... Continue Reading
OSHA Top Ten Violations: Number Three
The third most cited standard by OSHA is the General Requirements for Scaffolding in construction. 29 CFR 1926.451 and can lead to falls. Note that fall issues represent a large portion of the top citations. Remember this is not the standard for aerial lifts. That standard is 1926.453. Scaffolding requires design by a qualified person and must follow the design. Always check you load requirements regarding scaffold weight, loads, counterweights, and suspension ropes. Check for tipping moments and forces that can cause scaffolds to tip. Common problems cited include improper decking, lack of guardrails and inadequate supports including footings and base ... Continue Reading
Director of Marketing and BD Christy Walsh Wins LMASE Your Honor Award
Christy Walsh, Director of Marketing & BD, won a "Your Honor Award" at the Legal Marketing Association Southeastern Conference on September 25th, 2019. This award recognizes the Firm's Path2Partnership (P2P) program and the collaborative effort made by the our management team and various committees in order to design and implement the program.Christy Walsh, Director of Marketing & BD, won a “Your Honor Award” at the Legal Marketing Association Southeastern Conference on September 25th, 2019. This award recognizes the Firm’s Path2Partnership (P2P) program and the collaborative effort made by the our management team and various committees in order to design and implement ... Continue Reading
Attorneys Jennifer Parrott, Melody Kiella, and Whitney Greene Present at Women in Trucking Accelerate! Conference
Drew Eckl & Farnham was very well represented as an Emerald sponsor at the More. There were over 1,100 attendees, making it Women in Trucking's largest conference to date. Three of our attorneys Jennifer Parrott, Melody Kiella, and Whitney Greene had the opportunity to present on a panel with Lisa Johnson, who serves as the Legal and Regulatory Compliance Specialist at Southeastern Freight Lines. Their presentation centered around tips, advice, and success stories pertaining to females in a male-dominated industry. ... Continue Reading
Attorney Juliana Neelbauer Mentors at The Farm’s Mentor Night
Attorney Juliana Neelbauer participated as a mentor at September’s Mentor Night at The Farm. At this event, Juliana helped introduce the companies in The Farm’s Fall 2019 cohort to their network. ... Continue Reading
Partner Jeff Ward Announced as President-Elect for the GDLA
The Georgia Defense Lawyer’s Association held their 52nd Annual Meeting at the Ponte Vedra Inn & Club in Florida. DEF partners Karen Karabinos, Hall McKinley, and Jeff Ward were all in attendance. At the meeting, Jeff Ward was named the president-elect for the 2019-2020 term. See More For nearly 17 years, Jeff Ward has practiced as a trial lawyer in Georgia. He has successfully tried cases to jury verdict in both state and federal court and regularly provides guidance and counsel to a variety of clients. His civil litigation experience encompasses pre-lawsuit consultation, trial practice and the appeals process. With this experience, he is able to advise his clients on the best ... Continue Reading
Karen Karabinos named DRI Women in the Law Committee’s September 2019 “WITL Champion”
The DRI Women in the Law Committee featured Karen Karabinos as the September 2019 "WITL Champion". Karen, who is heavily involved in a number of committees both within DEF and outside of the firm, holds several leadership positions and utilizes these positions to help others. In this interview, Karen explains why she takes time from her legal career to contribute in various programs to support woman attorneys advancing in their careers and accomplishing their goals. "These roles have made me very visible in the firm and provide me with the unique opportunity to champion women by mentoring, marketing, advancing and planning the future for women attorneys in our firm. I am also vocal ... Continue Reading
The Debate Involving Depreciation of Labor Cost Continues
Karen Karabinos’ article “The Debate Involving Depreciation of Labor Costs Continues” featured in DRI’s The Voice September newsletter, dives into the continuous discussion on whether labor costs can be depreciable when calculating actual cash value of property damage. The article focuses around Lammert v. Auto-Owners Insurance Company, in which Auto-Owners depreciated the cost of labor when calculating actual cash value of a damage claim made by the Lammert family. “While the parties in Lammert agreed that the proper method of calculating actual cash value is the replacement cost less depreciation, the parties disputed whether depreciation applied to both materials and labor. ... Continue Reading
OSHA Top Ten Violations: Number Two
Coming in at number 2 on the OSHA top Ten Citation list is Hazard communication (29 CFR 1910.1200) with 3,671 violations. Hazard Communication has a variety of areas that can lend themselves to citations. Some of the key aspects of the Hazard Communication Standard are: A Written Hazard Communication Program is developed, implemented and maintained and employees are trained on the programChemicals are properly classifiedChemicals are properly labeledChemical labels are not removed or defacedInformation concerning the hazards is transmitted to employees. (GHS Labeling Standards)Creation and maintenance of Safety Data Sheets and access by employees to Safety Data ... Continue Reading
OSHA Top Ten Violations: Number One
Last week OSHA released the preliminary numbers for the top ten violations. The data includes violations from October 1, 2018-August 31, 2019 and is not final, but most likely will resemble the final numbers. I am going to take the top ten violations, one each post and address some issues and best practices in an effort to help employers reduce these violations. The most cited violation was, as it has been for several years, Fall Protection(construction) under the general requirements of 29 C.F.R. 1926.501. Fall Protections in construction resulted in over 6000 citations, almost double the second most cited standard. Residential single-family housing contractors, ... Continue Reading