Tort and Regulatory Risk - Essay Example

That is, regardless of whether or not they are actually culpable of the violation in question, and regardless in this case whether the plaintiff even has a case. No organization wants to fight to maintain a reputation in the public arena, and as is commonly understood, the resolution of a lawsuit such as the one leveled by Kelly Bates can often take at least a decade to resolve. Torts and Risks are primarily associated with the non-compliance with the 'Clean Water Act' (1972). In Alumina's case, they have had a pretty solid practice of compliance following a problem in the past that they both corrected, and implemented policies and procedures to prevent such an incident re-occurring.

Complying with the Clean Water Act can most adequately be understood in a basic legal positivistic framework, that is, one is either complying with the standards established by the Act or they are not. Prevention, Detection & Correction: A preventative approach is one that implements a Quality Assurance procedure of testing with a regularity that can anticipate any corrective measures that need to take place. One of the core strategies that the company in question can take, is to establish a new department that focus' primarily on environmental compliance.

A quality assurance team can establish a set of protocols for testing and addressing any problems before they go so far as to negatively impact either the environment or the health of the community. Likewise, prevention is a matter of establishing a set of procedures representing the 'best practices' for that particular emission – are there technologies that can minimize or mitigate the emissions that are at levels that are either harmful or beyond the allowed limit. EPA: The EPA was established by Richard Nixon in 1970 [McMahon, 19] .

Currently, it has an operating budget of over $ 10.4 Billion and the current director is Lisa Jackson [http://www.epa.gov ] . This agency of the government is the main or central overseeing body of all environmental regulations in the US.. The division within the agency that is particularly focused on compliance of environmental law and pollution standards is the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. It both establishes the regulations and in turn, enforces the compliance along with establishing the protocols and procedures for both – that is both the regulation and enforcement.

It is also an agency which provides a significant body of research both on the environment, but also on the legal regulations and public policy pertaining to the environment. Torts & Risks: The main issue regarding tort and risk, is basic non-compliance. Any non-compliance opens up the corporation to litigation or lawsuits because of the basic problem of knowing endangerment. This is a legal issue that falls within the purview of conspiracy charges. Thus, any problems connecting the non-compliance with the regulations overseen and regulated by the EPA are facts that can be used against the organization.

In turn, the problems with negligence in legal terms can be quite wide in scope, and of course, any situation of non-compliance lends itself to a lawsuit based on negligence and recklessness in regard to public safety. Prevention, Detection & Correction: As was noted above in relation to the Clean Water Act (1972), an environmental quality assurance