Data last updated: August 31, 2026
Eleven fall protection citations were issued in New Hampshire over the past 12 months under 1926.501, the standard that governs working at height. That is not a high volume compared to bigger states, but the penalties tell you these were not paperwork slaps: the average fine hit $4,134, the median sits at $2,000, and one contractor in Concord was hit with a willful citation carrying a $26,482 penalty. Ten of the eleven citations trace back to construction trades, and Hampton alone produced two of the five named cases below.
If you or your company just received a citation like this, the clock is already running. A New Hampshire OSHA defense attorney can tell you within a single conversation whether contesting makes sense for your situation, and that conversation needs to happen fast.
What 1926.501 Actually Requires on a New Hampshire Job Site
The rule behind every one of these citations is straightforward in concept, harder in execution. Once a worker is exposed to a fall of six feet or more to a lower level on a construction site, the employer has to have protection in place before that worker steps into the exposure zone. That means guardrails, safety nets, or a personal fall arrest system properly rigged and used, not just available in a truck somewhere on site.
OSHA does not require you to guess which method fits your job. The 1926.501 standard hub breaks down how the guardrail, netting, and personal arrest options each apply depending on the work being done. Where New Hampshire inspectors keep finding gaps is not confusion about the rule itself, it is the moment-to-moment reality of workers on a roof edge or an open floor without anything tied off or blocking the fall path.
Roofers Account for Nearly Two-Thirds of These Citations
Of the eleven citations, seven were issued to roofing contractors. That is not a coincidence. Roofing work puts people at the leading edge of a fall hazard for hours at a stretch, often on steep or wet surfaces, and the margin for a missed anchor point or a skipped guardrail section is thin. Residential construction and electrical contracting each accounted for one citation apiece, a reminder that fall exposure is not confined to roofs alone, but the concentration in roofing contractors work is impossible to ignore if you run crews on New Hampshire roofs.
The breakdown by violation severity matters just as much as the industry split. Seven of the eleven citations were classified Serious, meaning the inspector documented a real chance of death or serious injury. Two were Other-than-Serious. But one was Willful and one was Repeat, and those two categories change the financial picture entirely, because OSHA reserves them for situations where the agency believes the employer knew about the hazard, or had already been cited for the same thing before.
What These Citations Actually Cost
The named examples from the past year show the real spread. Pl Construction Corporation in Concord was cited under subsection B13 as Willful and assessed $26,482, issued June 5, 2026, the largest penalty on record for this period. Ortega General Construction Corp in Nashua drew a Repeat citation under the same subsection, penalized $8,341, issued June 23, 2026. Sunloud Solar Solutions, LLC in Pembroke was cited Serious for $3,178 on May 4, 2026. Alex Builders & Sons Inc. in Hampton faced a Serious citation of $2,050 on April 20, 2026, and Steve Desjardins, LLC, also in Hampton, was cited Serious for $2,000 on September 3, 2025.
Notice the gap between the Willful penalty and the Serious penalties, roughly ten to thirteen times higher. That gap is exactly why the classification on your citation paperwork matters more than the headline dollar figure. A full explanation of how these numbers get calculated, and where negotiation room typically exists, is laid out on the OSHA fall protection violations penalty amounts page.
There is also real movement between the initial fine and what companies actually end up paying. Across these New Hampshire cases, the average reduction between the initial and final penalty ran 43 percent, which tells you a lot of employers, or their attorneys, successfully pushed back on the first number OSHA handed them.
A 43 percent average reduction is not automatic, and it does not happen by waiting quietly. Talking to a New Hampshire OSHA defense attorney early in the process is typically what makes that kind of reduction possible, whether that means challenging the classification, negotiating the penalty, or contesting the citation outright.
The 15-Day Window You Cannot Afford to Miss
Once a citation lands, you have exactly 15 working days to file a Notice of Contest. Miss that window and the citation becomes a final order, penalty and all, with essentially no further avenue to fight it. That is a short runway, especially if you are also trying to fix the underlying hazard, deal with insurance questions, and keep a job moving.
The how to contest an OSHA citation guide walks through what the contest process actually involves and what evidence tends to matter. But given how much is riding on that 15-day deadline, and how much the classification alone can swing your final bill, this is not a process to handle alone or to put off while you decide. Reach out to a New Hampshire OSHA defense attorney as soon as the citation arrives so the clock does not run out on your options.
If a citation is sitting on your desk right now, treat the date on it as the start of a countdown, not a suggestion. Gather the paperwork, note the classification, and get a lawyer looking at it before those 15 working days slip away.