Louisiana Maritime Injury Lawyers

Morris & Dewett has handled maritime injury claims across Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico for more than 25 years.

Louisiana Maritime Injury Law: An Overview

Three federal statutes govern most maritime injury claims in Louisiana: the Jones Act, the LHWCA, and OCSLA. Which statute applies to your situation determines your legal rights, your available damages, and your filing deadlines. Louisiana sits at the center of North American maritime activity. The Port of South Louisiana ranked first nationally in dry bulk cargo tonnage in 2023, handling 135.8 million short tons. The Mississippi River corridor connects the heartland to global shipping. That volume of maritime commerce means a large workforce, and a large workforce means maritime injuries happen here regularly.

Jones Act

A federal statute (46 U.S.C. § 30104) that gives qualifying seamen the right to sue their employer for negligence. It provides a full tort remedy including pain and suffering, which general maritime law and most workers’ compensation systems do not.

LHWCA

Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act (33 U.S.C. § 901 et seq.). A federal workers’ compensation system for maritime workers who work on navigable waters or adjacent areas but do not qualify as seamen under the Jones Act.

OCSLA

Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (43 U.S.C. § 1331 et seq.). The federal statute extending US jurisdiction to the outer continental shelf and governing the rights of workers on fixed offshore platforms, which are not vessels.

Three federal legal frameworks govern most Gulf of Mexico and navigable-water injury claims. The Jones Act (46 U.S.C. § 30104) covers seamen employed on vessels. The LHWCA (33 U.S.C. § 901 et seq.) covers longshoremen, harbor workers, and shipyard employees. The OCSLA (43 U.S.C. § 1331 et seq.) extends federal jurisdiction to fixed platforms and structures on the outer continental shelf.

Louisiana state tort law and the Louisiana Civil Code apply in narrower situations. Some dock workers who do not qualify under the LHWCA may have state law claims. Which legal framework applies to your situation is often the first and most important question in a maritime injury case.

Morris & Dewett handles maritime claims exclusively under federal maritime law, not as a sideline to general personal injury work.

Detailed information on each legal framework is available on the sub-pages for Jones Act claims, maintenance and cure, offshore accidents, offshore oil rig accidents, and unseaworthiness claims.

The Jones Act: Seaman Status and Your Right to Sue

The Jones Act gives qualifying seamen the right to sue their employer for negligence. That right does not exist under general maritime law, which limits injured workers to maintenance and cure only. The Jones Act changes the entire damage picture.

Seaman status

A legal classification under the Jones Act. To qualify, a worker must (1) contribute to the function of a vessel or fleet of vessels, and (2) have a substantial connection to a vessel in navigation. Courts generally interpret this as spending more than 30% of work time on the vessel.

Seaman status is the threshold question. Two requirements must be met: contributing to the function of a vessel or fleet of vessels, and having a substantial connection to a vessel in navigation. Courts generally use the 30% work-time benchmark as a guide, though the analysis is fact-specific.

The Jones Act negligence standard is lower than common law. Your employer is liable even if the negligence contributing to your injury was slight. This matters because it shifts the burden significantly toward recovery. You do not need to prove the employer was reckless or grossly careless. You prove that some negligence, however minor, played a part in your injury.

Employers routinely dispute seaman status precisely to push workers into the LHWCA system, which caps damages and eliminates pain and suffering recovery.

Workers who typically qualify as seamen include offshore rig workers assigned to a drilling vessel, commercial fishermen on Gulf fishing vessels, cargo ship and tanker crew, tugboat and barge workers, and supply vessel crew servicing offshore platforms. More information is on the Jones Act claims page.

Maintenance and Cure: What Your Employer Owes You After a Maritime Injury

Maintenance and cure

A no-fault obligation requiring a seaman’s employer to pay daily living expenses (maintenance) and all reasonable medical costs (cure) from the date of injury until the seaman reaches Maximum Medical Improvement. The employer owes this regardless of who caused the injury.

Your employer owes you Maintenance and cure from the date of your injury, regardless of fault. This obligation is one of the oldest in maritime law. It predates modern workers’ compensation systems by centuries. Your injury does not need to have been caused by employer negligence.

Maintenance is a daily living allowance during recovery. Federal courts have set rates that employers frequently undercut. Many employers pay $35 or less per day. Current case law supports rates considerably higher, and courts have awarded maintenance at rates reflecting actual living costs when employers have been shown to be paying below their legal obligation.

MMI

Maximum Medical Improvement. The point at which a treating physician determines your medical condition has stabilized and further significant improvement is not expected. Reaching MMI ends the employer’s cure obligation but does not end a Jones Act or unseaworthiness claim.

Cure covers all reasonable and necessary medical treatment until you reach MMI. The employer’s obligation ends at MMI, not when they decide treatment is no longer necessary. Employers often try to declare MMI prematurely through company doctors. That is a separate problem.

Willful failure to pay maintenance and cure is an independent tort. Courts can award punitive damages when an employer’s refusal to pay is arbitrary or capricious. This is one of the few areas of maritime law where punitive damages are explicitly available.

Morris & Dewett challenges below-standard maintenance payments and disputes company doctor MMI findings with independent medical evaluations. Full details are on the maintenance and cure page.

Unseaworthiness: When the Vessel or Equipment Is the Problem

Unseaworthiness

A separate maritime law claim based on the shipowner’s absolute duty to provide a seaworthy vessel. “Unseaworthy” means the vessel, its equipment, or its crew was not reasonably fit for its intended purpose. No proof of negligence is required — only that the condition existed and caused the injury.

Unseaworthiness claims are often pursued alongside Jones Act claims for the same injury. They are distinct legal theories. Jones Act requires proving the employer’s negligence played a part in the injury. Unseaworthiness requires only that the vessel or its equipment was not reasonably fit for its intended use.

The practical scope of unseaworthiness is broad. It covers defective deck equipment, slippery surfaces without adequate non-slip protection, improperly maintained cranes and rigging, unsafe tools, and an incompetent or under-trained crew. The condition does not need to be a major defect. A single piece of equipment that failed its intended function can support an unseaworthiness claim.

Because unseaworthiness does not require proving negligence, it can reach defendants that a Jones Act claim cannot. The shipowner may be a separate entity from the employer. A third-party vessel owner who leased the vessel to your employer can be liable for unseaworthiness even though they were not your employer.

More information is on the unseaworthiness claims page.

The LHWCA: Coverage for Dock Workers and Shipyard Employees

The Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act covers workers who perform maritime-related work on navigable waters or adjacent land areas but do not qualify as seamen under the Jones Act. Covered workers include longshoremen, harbor workers, shipyard employees, ship repairers, ship cleaners, and certain dock workers.

The LHWCA provides a workers’ compensation track — medical benefits, two-thirds of your average weekly wage as temporary total disability, permanent impairment rated using scheduled injury tables, and vocational rehabilitation. It also preserves a third-party tort right against vessel owners. That third-party right is important: if a vessel owner’s negligence contributed to your injury, you can sue the vessel owner in tort even if your employer is shielded from negligence claims.

Benefits are administered through the Department of Labor’s Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs. Claims must be filed within one year of injury or last payment of compensation. The administrative process has its own set of procedural rules that differ from both state workers’ compensation and federal court litigation, with appeals heard by the Benefits Review Board.

The key limitation: LHWCA workers’ compensation does not include pain and suffering damages. If a vessel owner’s negligence played a role in your injury, the third-party tort claim is where those damages live. Missing the third-party claim by focusing only on the workers’ comp track is a significant error.

Louisiana ports ranked among the top ten nationally in cargo tonnage in 2023. Port of New Orleans, Port of Greater Baton Rouge, and Lake Charles Harbor District all generate substantial LHWCA claim volume.

OCSLA: Offshore Workers on Fixed Platforms

The Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act extends federal jurisdiction to fixed platforms, structures, and installations on the outer continental shelf. If you work on a fixed production platform in the Gulf of Mexico, OCSLA is likely the statute governing your situation.

Workers on fixed platforms typically cannot claim Jones Act seaman status because a fixed platform is not a vessel in navigation. This distinction matters enormously for damages. The vessel-versus-fixed-structure classification is litigated regularly, and the line is not always obvious. A jack-up rig may qualify as a vessel when it is in transit or not standing on its legs. A fixed production platform almost never does.

Comparative Fault

A legal rule under Louisiana law (La. C.C. Art. 2323) that reduces your recovery by your percentage of fault. Under the 2026 amendment, if you are 51% or more at fault, you recover nothing. The Jones Act uses pure comparative fault with no bar. Even a seaman who is 99% at fault retains a 1% recovery.

OCSLA workers are generally covered by LHWCA for benefits. Adjacent state law, typically Louisiana law, applies as surrogate federal law under OCSLA when it is not inconsistent with federal law. This means Louisiana’s Comparative Fault rules and the Louisiana Civil Code become relevant to OCSLA claims.

Plaquemines Port, spanning 1,691 acres with 81 miles of deep-draft channel, serves as a major logistics base for offshore energy operations and a primary transit point for workers traveling to and from Gulf fixed platforms. Offshore energy workers departing from or returning to Louisiana ports are a significant portion of OCSLA injury cases.

Morris & Dewett has litigated the vessel-versus-fixed-structure classification in federal court. Detailed information is on the offshore accidents and offshore oil rig accidents pages.

Who Can File a Maritime Injury Claim in Louisiana?

Maritime law covers a wide range of workers whose jobs take them onto vessels, navigable waterways, or adjacent maritime areas. If your work connects to a vessel, a port, or an offshore platform, federal maritime law likely applies to some aspect of your injury claim.

Workers who regularly pursue maritime injury claims in Louisiana include offshore oil and gas workers such as rig hands, drillers, tool pushers, and production operators. Commercial fishermen working Gulf waters qualify under the Jones Act as seamen on fishing vessels. Tugboat and barge workers on the Mississippi River and the connecting waterway system are among the clearest Jones Act seamen in the country.

Cargo ship and tanker crew at major Louisiana ports have Jones Act rights when employed on vessels. They also carry LHWCA rights when working on the dock side. Longshore workers and harbor workers at Louisiana ports are the core LHWCA workforce. The Port of South Louisiana handled 135.8 million short tons of dry bulk cargo in 2023, ranking first nationally. The Port of New Orleans ranked seventh, Port of Greater Baton Rouge eighth, and Lake Charles Harbor District tenth. That volume represents substantial workforce exposure.

Shipyard workers at Gulf Coast facilities have LHWCA coverage. St. Mary Parish is home to significant shipyard operations, and ongoing investment in the Franklin shipyard is expanding the workforce in that sector. Offshore supply vessel crew servicing Gulf platforms are typically Jones Act seamen. Cruise ship passengers injured in navigable waters have separate general maritime law claims against the vessel operator.

What Compensation Does Louisiana Maritime Law Allow?

The compensation available depends on which federal framework covers your situation. The frameworks differ significantly in what they provide.

Jones Act seamen can recover past and future medical expenses, lost wages and loss of earning capacity, pain and suffering, mental anguish, and loss of consortium for a spouse. Unseaworthiness claims provide the same damage categories and are often pursued alongside Jones Act claims for the same injury. When both theories succeed, the damages are not doubled. They are recovered once, but the parallel theories increase the chance of success.

Maintenance and cure

A no-fault obligation requiring a seaman’s employer to pay daily living expenses (maintenance) and all reasonable medical costs (cure) from the date of injury until the seaman reaches Maximum Medical Improvement.

Maintenance and cure provides daily living allowance during recovery plus all reasonable medical costs. If the employer willfully refuses to pay, punitive damages are available as a separate remedy.

LHWCA provides medical benefits, two-thirds of average weekly wage as temporary total disability compensation, permanent impairment benefits calculated using a scheduled injury table, and vocational rehabilitation. Pain and suffering are not included in the workers’ compensation track. Third-party vessel owner tort claims recover full tort damages including pain and suffering.

DOHSA

Death on the High Seas Act (46 U.S.C. § 30301 et seq.). A federal statute that applies when death occurs more than three nautical miles from the US shoreline. DOHSA limits non-economic damages in some circumstances and provides a separate wrongful death framework from state law wrongful death claims.

Wrongful death at sea has its own statute. The DOHSA (46 U.S.C. § 30301 et seq.) applies when a death occurs more than three nautical miles from shore. It limits non-economic damages in certain cases.

Louisiana comparative fault under La. C.C. Art. 2323 applies to some maritime claims. If you are 51% or more at fault, you recover nothing under that framework. The Jones Act uses a different standard. Jones Act applies pure comparative fault with no cutoff bar. A seaman who is partially at fault can still recover a proportionally reduced award.

What Are the Deadlines for Filing a Maritime Injury Claim in Louisiana?

Prescriptive Period

Louisiana’s term for the legal deadline to file a lawsuit. For standard personal injury claims, it is two years from the date of injury under La. C.C. Art. 3493.1 (effective July 1, 2024). Maritime claims have separate and different deadlines set by federal law.

Maritime injury claims have their own deadlines. They are not the same as Louisiana’s standard two-year personal injury Prescriptive Period.

The Jones Act has a three-year prescriptive period under 46 U.S.C. § 30106. That is longer than Louisiana’s two-year state deadline, but it is not unlimited. Three years passes quickly when you are recovering from an offshore injury and dealing with an employer who is disputing your seaman status.

The LHWCA requires filing a formal claim with the Department of Labor’s Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs within one year of injury or within one year of the last payment of compensation. Missing this administrative deadline can bar your claim.

General maritime law unseaworthiness claims are governed by laches. Laches is an equitable doctrine, not a hard cutoff. Courts consider whether you delayed unreasonably and whether that delay prejudiced the other party. In practice, courts often apply a three-year reference period, but cases have been dismissed faster when delay caused evidence loss. Death on the High Seas Act claims have a three-year limitations period.

Louisiana state personal injury deadlines do not govern Jones Act or LHWCA claims.

What to Do After a Maritime Injury

Seek medical attention immediately. After emergency care, you have the right to choose your own treating physician. Your employer will likely direct you to a company doctor. Company-selected doctors are not independent. They often minimize injury severity because they work for the employer. Accept emergency treatment, but consult an independent physician as soon as possible. Document that you requested treatment and when.

Report the injury in writing before you leave the vessel or worksite. Verbal reports can be disputed or denied. A written report creates a record. Note the date, time, location, what happened, what condition caused the injury, and the names of any witnesses. Keep a copy.

Preserve evidence. Take photos of the hazardous condition, equipment, or area involved. Identify co-workers who witnessed the incident and get their contact information. Names and numbers written down that day are more reliable than memories reconstructed months later.

Do not sign any documents from the employer or their insurance company before speaking with an attorney. Early releases, accident reports framed to minimize employer fault, and medical authorization forms can all be used to limit your recovery. You are not required to sign anything at the scene or on the vessel.

Request and preserve vessel logs, maintenance records, and work orders related to the condition that caused your injury. These records have retention schedules. They can disappear. An attorney can send a preservation demand that creates a legal obligation to retain them. Morris & Dewett sends preservation demands immediately on engagement.

Morris & Dewett’s Maritime Practice

Morris & Dewett has handled maritime injury cases in Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico for more than 25 years. Cases include Jones Act claims, maintenance and cure disputes, LHWCA proceedings, OCSLA tort claims, and wrongful death at sea under DOHSA.

The firm holds an AV Preeminent rating from Martindale-Hubbell, the highest peer rating for legal ability and ethics. Super Lawyers recognizes Morris & Dewett attorneys in personal injury. The firm has earned more than 2,498 five-star Google reviews from clients across Louisiana.

Contingency Fee

A fee arrangement where the attorney is paid only if there is a recovery, as a percentage of the amount recovered. The client pays no upfront fees and owes no attorney fees if the case does not succeed.

Maritime cases are handled on a Contingency Fee basis. There are no upfront attorney fees. If there is no recovery, there is no attorney fee.

Morris & Dewett handles cases throughout Louisiana and the Gulf Coast from offices in Shreveport.