Follow up to another question I had on here - do you research employer safety history in serious workplace injury cases?

Got some interesting responses on a post yesterday and wanted to follow up with something more specific -

For paralegals who specifically work on workplace injury, construction accident, industrial injury, wrongful death (at work), etc...

When a case may involve unsafe work conditions, do you ever research the employer’s or contractor’s safety history?

I’m not asking about routine workers’ comp claims where fault may not be central. I’m more interested in matters where prior notice, similar hazards, contractor responsibility, recurring safety issues, or workplace safety history could affect the investigation.

For example, do you ever look at OSHA inspsections, prior similar citations, fatality or complaint inspections, related company locations, public incident history, news reports, or state/federal enforcement records?

If you do this research, is it usually early in intake, later in discovery, for attorney review, for subpoenas, or only when specifically requested?

I’m trying to understand what public safety-history research paralegals actually do in practice, and whether it is useful enough to affect how a matter is evaluated or investigated.