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Douglas E. Spiker

Shareholder, Shareholder-in-Charge of Cleveland Office

Cleveland
1375 East Ninth Street
One Cleveland Center, 10th Floor
Cleveland, OH 44114
P: 216.696.7125 216.696.7125
F: 216.623.0134
E: dspiker@ralaw.com | vCard

Akron

Overview Education Credentials Recognitions Affiliations Insights

Doug helps employers – health care, retail, manufacturing, and construction businesses ranging in size from family-owned businesses to Fortune 50 companies – reduce Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) compliance and workers' compensation claims. His advice, founded on an in-depth understanding of each client’s business practices and goals, balances the employer’s operations, personnel, products, and services needs to craft proactive and preventative workplace safety programs that reduce injuries while avoiding legal repercussions down the road. In addition, Doug regularly represents employers before the Ohio Industrial Commission, Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation and in Ohio's state and appellate courts.

Doug fights allegations of Violation of Specific Safety Requirement (VSSR) and all related litigation. He handles rating, classification, and premium issues before the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation Adjudication Committee and Administrator’s Designee levels as well as the 10th District Court of Appeals and Ohio Supreme Court. And when accidents occur in the workplace, he guides his clients through effective responses to OSHA citations that mitigate their business and regulatory impact, often obtaining reduced or eliminated fines. For example, in a matter involving the death of an employee due to his unsafe activity, Doug successfully negotiated with OSHA to work out a non-citation that absolved the employer of responsibility for the accident.

In another OSHA matter, he was able work with OSHA to obtain a 50% reduction in fines related to a workplace accident by demonstrating the staffing challenges that led in part to the situation and the steps the employer had already begun to take to eliminate the cause, including enhanced training and additional documentation.

In addition to his responsibilities as legal counsel to his clients, Doug actively educates third-party administrators, clients, and trade and bar associations on numerous workers' compensation topics through writing and speaking engagements across Ohio. Early in his career, Doug was a Hearing Officer for the Industrial Commission.

Experience
  • Representation of employers in rating, classification, and premium issues before the Bureau of Workers' Compensation's Adjudication Committee
  • Successfully defended an OSHA citation imposed when an employee for a transportation company was killed in a workplace forklift accident.
  • Defeated a Violation of Specific Safety Requirement application arising out of an accident that would have put a non-profit out of business.
  • Successfully negotiated reduced OSHA citations and monetary penalties for a manufacturing client by working with a safety consultant and implementing a better safety program.
  • Successfully defended a death claim and OSHA citations arising from a heart attack that occurred in the workplace of a plumbing and electrical company.
  • Successfully defeated a workers’ compensation claim and an OSHA citation arising from a 20+-foot fall brought about by an employee’s intoxication. 
  • Guided several state-funded employers through the transition to self-insured status, resulting in significant savings in workers compensation premiums
  • Statewide practice in all aspects of defending workers' compensation claims
  • Assists employers to ensure compliance with Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations as well as safety requirements under the Ohio Workers' Compensation Act
  • Successful defense of numerous VSSR applications and OSHA citations