Legal Question in Appeals and Writs in California

This question is regarding credibility of an appeal. A year ago, we were cited by California OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration), and the person who cited us used very iffy methods of processing the citations. Initially when cited, she used someone else's citation as a template to cite us. Now its obvious that every case is not the same, so therefore what she had previously cited for them, does not necessarily apply to us--with that being said, when the OSHA agent was using another parties citation as the template, she failed to properly correct specific parts of the citation that makes it unique to us--so thus the citation should not apply to us, correct? Weeks later, we were mailed a "final" revision of the draft, to which we have reason to believe that it was sent out because when appealing the "original" citation, they didn't expect us to fight/appeal the citation (just taking advantage of the small business farm owners).

Long story short, the appeal process went through, and an informal conference was held between the two parties (us and the Fresno OSHA department; more specifically the district manager)--the two parties agreed to the amount of $1820 (omitted a few items and left some on)--but when the Judge who was appointed the case, mailed us the final order for the citation, the sum came to over $2500! The reasoning for the hike was because of the incompetency of the district manager to add.

Throughout this entire fiasco, there have been some shady work done on their behalf--such as lack of evidence, credibility (the OSHA agent not providing the right information, using another parties' citation, etc.), and the district manager's credibility.

Do we have a possible case against the entire case? We just want to eliminate the entire citation--and if possible sue for stress emotional distress (spending over a year with this case alone!).


Asked on 10/25/09, 1:28 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
George Shers Law Offices of Georges H. Shers

You might want to go to an attorney who specializes in administrative complaints, but it seems to me that an appeal is not worthwhile. If having the citation causes you other possible problems beyond the $2,500 fine, then an appeal could be worthwhile. But it will cost you more than $2,500 to fight the case. Using an lincorrct form is not a basis for throwing the citation out; court ignore minor errors that do not prejudice the other side. Moreover, you agreed to a settlement and the judge was entitled to add up the figures to see what was actually agreed to. How are you going to get around the agreement yo entered into? You can not sue the state agency for emotional distress as apparently they may have been sloppy but did not do anything improprer.

I realize it is hard to take what occurred, but the best thing to do is to forget about it. Life has many defeats in it, but the defeats are more costly if you keep dweling on them.

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Answered on 10/30/09, 1:45 am


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