Louisiana Jones Act Blog

Last week we talked about the high fatality rate in the commercial fishing industry and how the industry has traditionally resisted legislative efforts to intervene with safety standards. Traditionally, commercial fishing safety has received a dearth of attention on the federal level. However, more commercial fishermen and safety advocates are joining cries for reform in […]

Commercial fishing is one of the deadliest industries in the United States, ranked as the most dangerous occupation by the Bureau of Labor Statistics from 2007 to 2010. From 2000 to 2010 the industry’s fatality rate was 31 times higher than the national workplace average, with 116 work-related deaths in the Gulf of Mexico alone. Fishing crews […]

Louisiana scored a major victory for workplace safety recently in the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s 2011 Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses. The state’s rate of private industry work-related injuries and illnesses was the best since OSHA revised its record-keeping rules in2002. The survey uses a measure of non-fatal work-related injuries per 100 full-time workers to […]

We recently wrote about requirements for Jones Act Claims surrounding maritime workplace injuries. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which hears appeals from U.S. District Courts in Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, recently offered some additional clarification on when employers may be held liable for employee injuries at sea. The court heard a case […]

Last week we introduced a case that was recently heard by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which includes Louisiana. A driller on a drilling rig accidentally shot and killed a fellow employee, a crane operator, while the former was scheduled for duty. The victim’s widow sued the company for wrongful death […]

As many Louisianans know, maritime work is rife with hazards. If you work on or near ships it is important to know your rights in case of a workplace accident or injury. The Jones Act is a federal law that protects the rights of workers at sea. When a seaman is injured because of negligence by his […]

Another Louisiana man has been injured after he says that his employer failed to create a safe maritime workplace. The man worked for Montco Offshore Inc. and was participating in a safety drill when he was knocked unconscious and seriously injured. Now, he has filed a maritime workplace accident lawsuit against his employer in New […]

New Orleans is the site of a new federal lawsuit in which three seamen are suing their employer for having an unsafe workplace. Under maritime law, Louisiana seamen are entitled to many of the same protections that employees on land receive: a workplace that is free from danger. Sadly, not all employers provide such a space […]

If an employee was to fall down in a Lake Charles office because his or her employer had created a hazardous work environment, there would be no question that the employee could attempt to seek compensation from the employer. While seamen and other maritime workers are similarly exposed to dangerous conditions, they must utilize federal […]

Nearly one year ago, a Louisiana seaman was seriously injured while he was working for Noble Corp. and Noble Drilling Corp. off the shores of Louisiana. He said that he was trying to fix a hydraulic pump that was no longer working when he suffered a maritime workplace injury. Like any employee, seamen and other maritime […]