Environmental Law encompasses practice areas such as:

 · Issues related to compliance activities and documents required by state and federal administrative laws and regulations (solid waste, hazardous waste, air emissions, wastewater discharges, groundwater contamination, toxic release inventories, release reporting, right-to-know)

· Issues related to environmental and safety audits of fixed facilities as a part of self-auditing or in anticipation of transactions

· Issues related to soil and/or groundwater contamination by chemicals or biological agents at fixed facilities or spill sites and the remediation thereof

· Issues related to air emissions, surface water discharges and solid/hazardous waste generation, storage, treatment and/or disposal

· Issues related to wetlands permitting and restoration

· Environmental assessments of property or facilities involved in transactions

· Issues related to soil and/or groundwater contamination involved in property transactions

· Defense of administrative and civil enforcement actions issued or instituted by state or federal administrative agencies

· Defense of civil actions by state environmental departments of justice after referral of administrative enforcement actions by state environmental agencies

· Defense of civil actions instituted by the U.S. Department of Justice after referral of administrative enforcement actions by the U.S. EPA

Environmental Crimes Defense encompasses practice areas such as:

· Defense of criminal enforcement actions issued or instituted by state or federal administrative agencies as a result of alleged violations of environmental laws and regulations

· Defense of criminal actions instituted by state environmental departments of justice (State Attorney Generals) after referral of environmental enforcement actions by state environmental agencies as a result of alleged violations of environmental laws and regulations

· Defense of criminal actions instituted by the U.S. Department of Justice after referral of environmental enforcement actions by the U.S. EPA as a result of alleged violations of environmental laws and regulations

· Typically, a significant focus of the defense in an environmental-criminal case is either proving that the alleged violation of environmental laws or regulations did not occur or that the prosecution cannot prove that the alleged violation of environmental laws or regulations actually occurred. It is in this portion of the defense that it is critical that your environmental-criminal attorney have a very in-depth, hands-on working knowledge of the environmental laws and regulations at issue.

Toxic Tort Law encompasses practice areas such as:

· Personal injury as a result of an exposure to a hazardous chemical

• Chemicals can enter the body by inhalation (chemical air release from source, vaporization from contaminated drinking water during showering, contaminated airborne particulate matter)
• Chemicals can enter the body by absorption through the skin (physical contact with chemical)
• Chemicals can enter the body by ingestion (drinking contaminated water)

· Property damage resulting from contamination by a hazardous chemical

• Chemicals can impact property by contaminated groundwater
• Chemicals can impact property by illegal disposal practices
• Chemicals can impact property by contaminated surface water runon

Toxic tort cases are a special type of tort case that is typically brought against the polluter.  While the connection between property damage and the pollution source is usually not as difficult, personal injury resulting from a chemical exposure can be quite difficult to prove, because the connection between exposure to the chemical and a resulting injury or disease is often elusive. For example, some cancers may first develop 25 years or more after exposure to a cancer-causing chemical. Toxic tort cases are also very expensive to litigate because they typically involve a large number of documents, fact witnesses and expert witnesses.

Environmental Law Experience

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