Houston Offshore Oil Rig Injury

Have You Been Injured in an Offshore Oil Rig Accident in Houston, TX? The Houston Maritime Accident Attorneys at Grossman Law Offices can Help.

Workers that have been injured or killed while working in the maritime industry may be entitled to seek compensation through the Jones Act, a protective legal measure that was included in the Merchant Marine Act of 1920.

This Act serves to protect the rights of maritime workers, even if an accident resulting in injury or death occurs while the maritime employee is on land. However, applying the Jones Act to a personal injury or wrongful death case often requires the legal assistance of a knowledgeable attorney, since there are often many issues that must be properly determined in order for a maritime employee to be able to seek compensation through the Jones Act. Although pursuing a Jones Act claim can be challenging, the compensation possibly awarded through a successful claim can often be more than the compensation often awarded through a traditional personal injury or wrongful death lawsuit, or through the workers compensation process. Houston maritime accident attorney like Michael Grossman presents the following informational article to further elucidate the Jones Act and how it can assist an injured maritime worker or a maritime worker’s bereaved family to seek proper compensation for their injury or loss.

What is the Jones Act?

The Merchant Marine Act of 1920 is a federal statute that was created to bolster support for the burgeoning maritime industry of the United States in the early 20th century by stating that all products and items shipped between American ports had to utilize American-built and American-owned ships containing crews of Americans or permanent residents. The Jones Act is part of the Merchant Marine Act and works to protect the rights of injured or killed maritime industry employees, known as “seaman” within the act itself. Other moderately outdated terms that must be defined include “ship owner,” which can refer to a maritime employer, and “vessel,” which can refer to a wide variety of water-going craft on which commerce takes place. While the Jones Act does not specify what constitutes a vessel, past court cases have expanded the definition of “vessel” to include offshore oil rigs, casino boats, barges, tow boats, fishing boats, passenger ships like cruise lines, semi-submersible rigs, or other, similar types of floating apparatuses where some type of compensated work is being accomplished. If a seaman, i.e. worker, is injured or killed while in the employ of a ship owner, i.e. maritime worker, while associated with a vessel, i.e. a place where maritime industry is accomplished, then the injured worker or their bereaved family can seek compensation for their injury or loss through a Jones Act claim. All three aspects must be true in order for an aggrieved party to seek compensation through the Jones Act.

Who Does the Jones Act Protect?

Since the Jones Act only protects “seaman,” there are four specific criteria which such a “seaman” must meet:

1. The employee’s vessel must be in navigation, although this does not mean that the vessel must be in movement. In navigation simply refers to the operational status of the vessel. Permanently moored vessels and non-operational vessels are not considered to be in navigation.
2. The employee must have a permanent connection in nature or in time to the vessel or to a fleet of vessels owned by the same entity. In this instance, permanent does not mean continual.
3. The type of accident that occurs does not, by itself, dictate if a maritime employee is considered a seaman. The employee’s relationship to the vessel or fleet of vessels, the employee’s duties, and the circumstances of the accident are all considered in regards to a maritime employee’s status as a “seaman” in regards to a Houston Jones Act claim.
4. The injured or killed maritime worker must have been on the vessel in order to perform certain duties related to the functioning of the vessel or the vessel’s reason for existence.

These criteria were set in order to differentiate a land-based worker from a water-based employee. As an example, if an oil company executive leaves his land-based headquarters and travels to the Gulf of Mexico where a Houston oil rig accident occurs, causing him injury, then that executive will not be considered a “seaman” in regards to the Jones Act. However, if a Houston oil rig worker leaves the rig and drives to his land-based headquarters for a company meeting and is injured in an auto accident, then the oil rig worker would likely be considered a “seaman” in regards to the Jones Act. In other words, a maritime employee would likely still be able to seek compensation through the Jones Act even if their accident occurred on land, as long as they were conducting work on behalf of their employer while on land. However, some shipping companies may word their employee contracts with language used to deny that their employees could be considered “seaman.” Furthermore, a defense attorney in such maritime accident cases will often work towards establishing doubt as to whether or not an employee was conducting company business at the time of the accident. Houston maritime accident attorney Michael Grossman can help protect your interests against such an argument, and can also, where applicable, help identify you as a “seaman” in regards to the Jones Act.

Damages in Jones Act Cases

The legal term for the financial losses that a victim experiences as a result of an injury or death is known as damages. Personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits exist in order for an aggrieved party to be repaid, or compensated, for the damages they’ve incurred. If not financial loss has occurred, then there’s no need for compensation, and thus no need for a lawsuit. However, oil rig accidents in Houston, TX and other types of maritime accidents often result in severe injury of even death. In these instances, the damages incurred by the victim or the victim’s family can often be quite immense, resulting in great financial strain on an employee or an employee’s family that is already experiencing real pain. While compensation for damages cannot cure an injury or resuscitate a loved one, it can help with the strong financial pressures often experienced by victims and families of victims who’ve experienced a maritime accident in Houston. There are three types of damages that can be sought in maritime accident cases:

• Personal injury damages are damages quite similar to those sought in otherwise normal personal injury claims. Such damages can include medical expenses, loss of quality of life, impairment, pain and suffering, and other types of personal injury damages. These types of damages are common to a vast majority of personal injury claims.
  
  
• Cure relates to the vessel owner’s obligation to cover the costs of the victim’s reasonable medical expenses as a result of a maritime accident. When this obligation is avoided, a separate lawsuit may be filed. Such additional legal pressure is often necessary when a lack of proper compensation in regards to cure has contributed to a victim’s conditioning worsening over time.
  
  
• Maintenance relates to the ship owner’s obligation to cover the victim’s expenses, i.e. room and board, for the entirety of their recovery process while they’re unable to work. This somewhat antiquated notion refers to a time when maritime workers did not have a permanent residence and would have to be boarded on land for the entirety of their recovery process. The ship owner then had a legal obligation to cover the costs associated with that boarding. While this statute still exists and injured maritime workers can still seek maintenance damages in regards to a maritime accident, the standard amount for maintenance is only $15-$30 per day, as it has not been updated for decades. An experienced Houston maritime accident attorney can argue for a modern equivalent of maintenance costs in order to ensure that an injured victim is fairly compensated for their injury.

An important side note to consider in regards to damages that can be sought through the Jones Act is that cure and maintenance damages are not stated as being explicitly compensable through the Jones Act. Seeking such compensation is more an issue of tradition and prior case law. However, seeking such compensation can often help minimize or erase the deficit that may exist between fair compensation and what a liable party is willing to hand over. In other words, a negligent party in a Jones Act maritime accident case is not very likely going to come forward with compensation offerings in regards to cure or maintenance damages. This is one of the reasons why having an experienced Houston maritime accident injury attorney on your side can prove beneficial toward the outcome of your case. Since we’re aware that these types of damages can be sought, we’ll work to ensure that they are properly calculated as part of the sum total of damages being sought.

Does the Jones Act Apply to my Oil Rig Accident in Houston?

If you’ve suffered an injury or a loss due to an oil rig accident in Houston or another type of maritime injury accident in Texas, knowing which laws might apply to your particular accident can be troublesome. In some instances, there can be four different types of laws that could all apply to the same accident: the Jones Act, workers comp law, longshore and harbor workers’ compensation law, and general maritime law. While Jones Act claims often result in larger compensation results for victims seeking compensation through that Act, some accidents may not be applicable to that particular Act. In those instances, a competent maritime accident attorney will be able to apprise you of your possible legal options and which specific option might be in your best interest in regards to full and fair compensation.

Since these laws can often overlap each other, smart defense lawyers will attempt to find legal loopholes in which to exonerate their clients. By enlisting your own knowledgeable legal help, you can work to make sure that such a scenario doesn’t happen to you. Furthermore, since maritime employers understand the high stakes that can often be involved in Jones Act cases, they may attempt to steer an otherwise naive victim toward filing a workers comp claim, or toward seeking compensation in any other way than a Jones Act claim. Without the help of an experienced maritime accident lawyer like Michael Grossman, you may be led to believe that you’ll receive some type of compensation, even though the compensation may be much less than what you actually deserve or require in order to make a full recovery. Our goal is to always make sure that you’re taking the right legal steps so that you can be fully and fairly compensated for your injury or loss.

What Are Defensive Measures Against the Jones Act?

Jones Act defense attorneys will often be specialists, meaning that they will likely have a firm grasp of the Jones Act and the other maritime laws that may apply to your maritime injury accident case in Houston. Their goal is to have your case dismissed or your compensation package lessened to a severe degree in order to save their client as much money as possible, regardless of your real need for compensation in order to recover from your injury or loss. In order to obtain such an outcome, an experienced maritime defense lawyer will attempt to shift as much blame as possible off of their client and onto any other possible liable party, including the victim. In so doing, a victim’s compensation package could be greatly decreased, or, if the victim is shown to have been mostly liable for an accident, the case could be thrown out. Ensure that your legal representation is ready to defend your rights against such aggressive and experienced defensive teams.

Knowledgeable Jones Act defense lawyers will have an assortment of accusations that they can bring against an injured victim or a bereaved family member seeking compensation through a Jones Act claim, such as:

• Willful acts of seaman
• Willful misconduct, i.e. willful disobedience of the law
• Fighting
• Attempted suicide
• Drunkenness or gross inebriation
• Willful concealment of a pre-existing condition, i.e. the McCorpen Defense

The McCorpen Defense is used to call into a question whether or not an injured maritime worker disclosed a pre-existing condition to an employer before getting hired. If the injured worker purposefully did not disclose a pre-existing condition, and such a pre-existing condition would have changed the employer’s hiring decision, then the defense can argue that an injured maritime worker willfully concealed their pre-exisiting condition. Consequently, a claim could then be denied or severely diminished due to such a concealment. This is one of many defensive measures that a Jones Act lawyer will use in their arguments against an injured maritime worker or the bereaved family of a maritime employee. As such, it’s important to have experienced Houston maritime accident attorneys at your disposal that are ready to defend your interests, even against these rather specialized defensive measures.

Another defensive measure often employed concerns the amount of time that an employer had in order to identify and rectify a potentially dangerous situation. For example, deckhands may clear potentially hazardous water off of the ship’s deck, preventing others from suffering injury in a slip or fall. If more water accumulates on the deck in the same area shortly after the initial cleaning and an injury accident occurs, the employer’s legal representation could argue that there was not enough time to rectify the situation. On the other hand, an employer must rectify unsafe situations within a reasonable amount of time in order to prevent such accidents. In these instances, the timeline of events is a crucial aspect of a maritime injury accident case, and experienced lawyers on both sides of the case may use certain aspects of that timeline to reinforce their client’s case. However, the burden of proof in personal injury and wrongful death cases in Texas lies with the plaintiff, so the plaintiff’s legal representation must be able to build a strong case against the defendant, showing that the defendant’s negligence caused or contributed to the victim’s injury or loss.

The Jones Act and the Limitations Liability Act of 1851

The Limitations Liability Act of 1851, although old and created before insurance policies were commonplace, can still apply to instances of Jones Act cases. As its name suggests, the Act sets limitations, or caps, on the amount of compensation that a vessel owner is liable for when an accident causing injury or death occurs. The Act was created so that vessel owners would not possess unlimited liability in the wake of catastrophic maritime accidents that could involve multiple ships and millions of dollars in damages. As such, the cap was set at the shareholder’s or ship owner’s percentage stake in the combined total value of the vessel and its cargo as of the end of a voyage.

When a maritime defendant is seeking to be protected under the Limitations Liability Act of 1851, they will place an amount equal to their portion of the final value of the vessel and cargo into a trust. If a victim obtains a successful verdict that results in compensation awarded in excess of the amount of money in the trust, then the trust is increased to a dollar amount capped at $420/gross ton. Consequently, many defendants will try to conceal the true worth of their ships and cargo, or their true percentage stake in the vessel and cargo, so that they’re presented as having less financial exposure in such a maritime accident case. Houston maritime accident lawyer like Michael Grossman can assist you in ensuring that a negligent vessel owner or shareholder is being forthright with their financial assets and that the amount placed into a trust is fair in regards to the actual damages incurred in a Houston maritime accident.

Additionally, if a defendant is seeking to have the Limitations Act in effect for the claim brought against them, they must file the limitation within six months of having received notice that a Jones Act claim has been brought against them. If the plaintiff has filed a claim, the defendant has to file the limitation in the court where the plaintiff has already filed suit. If the plaintiff has not yet filed a suit, the defendant can file the limitation in the court where the vessel is docked. If the defendant’s vessel is not docked, the limitation act can be filed in any district court.

The Jones Act and Wrongful Death

Wrongful death occurs when a person, entity, or a combination of liable parties are negligent in their behavior and such negligence results in the death of a person. In a majority of these instances, a wrongful death lawsuit can be brought against the negligent parties. However, maritime wrongful deaths may be applicable under four different sets of laws, depending on the details of the fatal maritime accident and the relationship that existed between the liable party and the decedent. These four laws include the Jones Act, the Death on the High Seas Act (DOHSA), State law (i.e. workers comp law), and general maritime law.

If a maritime employee dies while working for a vessel, both the Jones Act and the Death on the High Seas Act may apply. However, the Death on the High Seas Act only applies if the death occurred more than three nautical miles away from the shore. If a maritime worker is killed while working for an employer covered by workers compensation insurance (and not all employers in Texas are covered by workers comp), then a wrongful death claim can be brought against the negligent employer, but only if the employer exercised gross negligence. General maritime law can apply to instances where a mechanical failure or a defective product may have contributed to a wrongful death at sea. In some maritime accident cases, all of these laws may apply to different parts of the accident case. Additionally, multiple parties may all hold a portion of liability for a maritime accident, meaning that there could be much more than one defendant involved in a maritime accident case in Houston, TX.

When the Houston maritime accident attorneys of Grossman Law Offices take on a case, we work to properly identify all possible liable parties in order for them to be held accountable for their negligent behavior resulting in your injury or your loss of a loved one. Many law firms often wait for an OSHA investigation to be completed and then rely on those finding to inform their legal pursuit. However, Grossman Law Offices takes such reports as only one part of a much large whole in regards to building a strong case on our clients’ behalf. We will conduct an independent investigation into your maritime accident in Houston in order to ascertain the cause or causes of the accident and the people or entities that may have played a negligent role in the accident. Since each liable party is proportionately responsible for awarding you compensation based on their percentage of liability in the accident, identifying all likely liable parties is a vital first step toward ensuring that our clients are able to seek full and fair compensation for their injury or loss.

Houston Maritime Accident Attorney Michael Grossman Can Help You in Your Maritime Accident Case

Seeking compensation for an injury or loss of life due to a maritime accident in Houston can be a challenging prospect, but it doesn’t have to be that way. By enlisting the help of an experienced, knowledgeable, and reputable maritime accident attorney in Texas like Michael Grossman, you can rest assured that your legal rights will be defended and your best interests looked after in light of your injury or loss. We can help you determine if the Jones Act is applicable to your particular maritime accident in Houston. We can help prove up damages, i.e. show that the amount requested in compensation is justifiable based on the financial losses you’ve experienced as a result of your injury or loss. We can help to make sure that you’re pursuing the correct legal route in regards to your maritime accident so that you can stand to be fully compensated for your injury or loss. We can help to make sure that you’re not taken advantage of by an employer, an insurance adjuster, or a defense attorney that would rather save money than help you recover from your injury or loss. Jones Act cases and other maritime injury accident cases in Houston are some of the more highly technical types of personal injury and wrongful death cases in existence. Ensure that you have capable legal help by contacting us today at 1-855-392-0000 (toll free) for a free legal consultation. You’ll be able to ask further questions about your case and receive answers in regards to your possible legal options. The Houston maritime accident attorneys of Grossman Law Offices are ready to help you recover from your maritime accident.