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Litigation/Enforcement Support Services
Virtually every environmental issue has a technical basis and a legal basis. Very few environmental consulting companies are able to bridge the gap between the two disciplines to provide the best advice to their clients. Spirit Environmental is one of the few who can. Spirit’s senior staff has the technical knowledge and experience with the legal process to provide the most comprehensive view possible of every issue we address. As such, Spirit Environmental is uniquely qualified to serve the needs of legal counsel seeking technical guidance or services.ENFORCEMENT ASSISTANCE
Spirit Environmental provides enforcement assistance for industry in response to allegations made by the U.S. EPA, U.S. DOJ, state agencies, and local agencies. We have assisted in approaches to national issues such as the recent coal-fired utilities enforcement strategy and the petroleum refining enforcement strategy.
Spirit Environmental’s staff has the skills to “sit at the table” with our clients to assist them in negotiating favorable settlements. We enjoy handling the tough issues and challenging agencies’ preconceived ideas. Our knowledge of the regulations and their history, combined with our technical expertise, has frequently convinced agencies to reconsider issues and agree to settlements in favor of our clients. We have represented and testified on behalf of industry associations on important issues valued at billions of dollars. We have assisted with the negotiation of numerous “Global Consent Decrees,” as well as U.S. EPA, state, and local consent decrees and compliance agreements.
LITIGATION SUPPORT
Spirit Environmental’s staff is well-known for its litigation support expertise. Our assignments have included enforcement assistance, expert witness testimony, consulting expert, and trial strategy.
EXPERT WITNESS
Spirit Environmental’s staff has provided expert witness testimony in over 20 cases, has been deposed over 50 times, and has been involved in over 75 matters. Our involvement is normally with industry clients; however, we have represented plaintiffs in several matters. The cases have involved public hearings, testimony before agencies, testimony before state committees, enforcement issues (including criminal cases), toxic tort cases, class action suits, and personal injury cases. We have testified in matters concerning emissions from refineries; petrochemical, chemical, plastics, herbicides, and pesticides facilities; and utilities and remediation activities.
CONSULTING WITNESS
Spirit Environmental’s staff has been used as consulting witnesses for the same variety of matters listed under Expert Witness. We have assisted counsel in understanding the technical issues of cases and have prepared numerous confidential reports for counsel testing, possible theories and modeling scenarios.
TRIAL STRATEGY
Spirit Environmental’s staff has assisted counsel with trial strategy, preparation of expert witnesses, and preparation of trial exhibits. In cases involving air emission issues, we translated the client’s technical details into a form understandable to counsel, judges, and jury members. We have identified, interviewed, and prepared expert witnesses who proved vital to the defense of the trial. In addition, we have prepared expert witnesses, providing lines of questioning for opposing experts. To ensure success, we carefully reviewed and critiqued our experts and experts of the opposition.