Did you or a family member suffer offshore injury in a job accident on a mobile offshore oil rig or platform? If so, you may be able to claim financial compensation for your losses through the Jones Act, especially with help from a veteran Alabama, Texas, Mississippi, Florida or Louisiana offshore accident lawyer.
What is the Jones Act? What is Jones Act law?
The Jones Act is a 1920 maritime law which, among other things, provides legal help for seamen, sailors or maritime workers if they’re injured while working on a ship or a vessel. As courts have held, this same protection also extends to those who work on offshore oil or gas rigs or platforms, which weren’t even invented when the maritime or admiralty law was written in 1920.
But there’s a catch: For a Jones Act claim, an offshore platform or rig must be mobile. That is, it should not be fixed to the ocean floor. This means the platform or rig should be what’s known as a mobile offshore drilling rig. Such things can include a mobile offshore drilling unit, or MODU, as well as drill ships, jack-up rigs, lay barges, spar platforms and semi-submersibles.
The doomed Deepwater Horizon which exploded and burned off the Louisiana Gulf Coast in 2010 was a MODU, or a mobile offshore drilling unit. Eleven workers tragically lost their lives in that disaster, underscoring the hazardous nature of offshore work.
Courts also hold that a “special purpose vessel,” or “SPV,” merits Jones Act protections. But workers on any type of rig or platform still must establish that it’s connected to a vessel or fleet of vessels, and that the injured worker contributed to its function or mission.
Maritime workers who are hurt offshore may have little recourse via Workers Compensation. But they do draw help from the Jones Act and its “maintenance and cure” provisions. “Maintenance” involves an employer’s daily payments for injured employees’ living expenses, which can be very low; “cure” involves an employer’s payments for injured employees’ medical care.
Offshore oil and gas workers on mobile platforms or rigs can suffer a variety of major injuries. In fact, injuries endured while working with heavy, complex equipment offshore and on the high seas often are more serious. They can involve the worker’s spine, head, neck, back, arms, legs, hands or feet. They may lead to paralysis or amputation.
Such injuries are covered by the Jones Act. It allows injured maritime workers — including those on mobile offshore platforms or rigs — to sue their marine employers directly for their losses.
Such maritime employers may not have their marine employees’ best interests at heart. They may resist letting maritime workers get a medical exam for their injury. They may try to pressure marine workers not to look for legal help. They may avoid paying maritime workers for maintenance and cure.
This adds to the reasons to engage an experienced offshore Jones Act lawyer or maritime attorney for your Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida or Louisiana offshore accident. And you need look no further than the longtime Gulf Coast personal injury law firm of Jim S. Adler & Associates.
The firm’s Jones Act lawyers and Jones Act attorneys understand this intricate maritime law, and strongly support individual workers in legal fights against large, monolithic employers. Jim “the Texas Hammer” Adler can lead your legal team and fight for your legal right to financial compensation for your losses — and perhaps also help you gain some peace of mind.
Notify an Adler Jones Act lawyer or marine attorney today simply by calling 1-800-566-3434, toll-free, or sending the free case review form on this Web page. Either way, an Adler representative will respond promptly to help you size up your case for a Jones Act lawsuit.