Texas is home to one of the busiest maritime industries in the United States. Every day, seamen, longshoremen, deckhands, tugboat crews, offshore workers, terminal employees, and shipyard workers keep commerce moving through the Houston Ship Channel and ports throughout the Texas Gulf Coast.
When those workers are seriously injured, their claims are often governed by federal maritime law rather than ordinary Texas workers’ compensation law.
At Gilman & Allison, LLP, our Texas maritime injury lawyers represent workers in cases involving the Jones Act, Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act (LHWCA), Section 905(b) vessel negligence, unseaworthiness, maintenance and cure, and general maritime law.
Were You Injured Working on a Vessel in Texas?
Workers injured aboard vessels may have legal rights that extend beyond traditional workers’ compensation.
The first question is often whether the injured worker qualifies as a Jones Act seaman.
The Jones Act, 46 U.S.C. § 30104, allows qualifying seamen to pursue claims against their employers for negligence contributing to their injuries.
Potential Jones Act workers may include:
- Tugboat and towboat deckhands;
- Tanker crew members;
- Captains, mates, and engineers;
- Dredge workers;
- Offshore vessel crew;
- Barge workers;
- Commercial fishing crews; and
- Other maritime employees with a substantial connection to a vessel or identifiable fleet of vessels.
Determining seaman status requires examining what the employee actually did and where the employee worked. An employer’s job title does not necessarily determine whether the Jones Act applies.
Common Jones Act Accidents in Texas
Jones Act injuries can occur anywhere from the Houston Ship Channel to offshore waters in the Gulf.
Our maritime attorneys investigate accidents involving unsafe decks, defective equipment, inadequate training, insufficient staffing, improper procedures, dangerous lifting operations, falls from ladders or gangways, line-handling accidents, winch injuries, crane accidents, collisions, allisions, fires, explosions, and falls overboard.
Jones Act negligence can involve failures by an employer to provide a reasonably safe workplace, proper equipment, adequate training, sufficient assistance, or safe methods for performing assigned work.
A seaman may also possess separate rights under general maritime law, including maintenance and cure and, depending upon the circumstances, claims involving an unseaworthy vessel.
Texas Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act Attorneys
Many maritime workers are not Jones Act seamen but are instead protected by the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act.
The LHWCA may apply to qualifying employees working in maritime employment at locations such as:
- Marine terminals;
- Docks and wharves;
- Shipyards;
- Cargo facilities;
- Ports;
- Vessel loading areas; and
- Other qualifying maritime locations.
Longshoremen, stevedores, ship repair workers, shipbuilders, cargo handlers, and certain terminal workers may fall within the LHWCA.
Coverage is highly fact-specific. The analysis frequently centers on the employee’s maritime status and the situs where the injury occurred.
Injured Longshoremen May Have a Claim Against the Vessel
One of the most important issues after a longshore accident is whether a third party contributed to the injury.
Under 33 U.S.C. § 905(b), an injured longshore worker may have a negligence claim against a vessel under appropriate circumstances.
A Section 905(b) case is separate from the worker’s LHWCA compensation claim.
Potential vessel-negligence cases can involve dangerous conditions aboard the vessel, unsafe equipment, hazards existing when the vessel was turned over for cargo operations, active negligence by vessel personnel, or circumstances in which the vessel failed to respond appropriately to a dangerous condition.
For seriously injured longshoremen, identifying a potential third-party vessel claim can be a critical part of the investigation.
Houston Ship Channel Maritime Injury Attorneys
The Houston Ship Channel is one of the country’s most significant maritime and industrial corridors.
Seamen and longshore workers regularly operate around tankers, container ships, chemical carriers, bulk carriers, tugboats, barges, docks, refineries, petrochemical facilities, and marine terminals.
An accident may therefore involve several different companies.
Depending on the circumstances, potentially responsible parties may include a vessel owner, operator, charterer, terminal operator, stevedoring company, maritime contractor, equipment company, or another third party.
Gilman & Allison, LLP investigates the relationships among these companies to determine which maritime remedies may apply.
Maritime Injury Lawyers Serving the Entire Texas Gulf Coast
Our Texas maritime practice is not limited to Houston.
Gilman & Allison, LLP handles maritime matters arising throughout the Texas Gulf Coast, including:
Houston, Baytown, Pasadena, Deer Park, La Porte, Galveston, Texas City, Freeport, Port Arthur, Beaumont, Orange, Corpus Christi, Ingleside, Port Aransas, and Brownsville.
We represent maritime workers injured aboard tugboats, barges, tankers, cargo ships, dredges, offshore vessels, workboats, and other commercial vessels, as well as workers injured at ports and marine terminals.
What Compensation Can an Injured Maritime Worker Recover?
Available compensation depends heavily on which maritime law governs the claim.
A qualifying Jones Act claim may permit recovery for damages associated with an employer’s negligence. LHWCA claims generally provide statutory medical and disability benefits. A longshore worker may also have a separate recovery against a negligent vessel or other responsible third party.
Maritime law may additionally provide qualifying seamen with rights to maintenance and cure, regardless of whether the employer was negligent.
Because different remedies can arise from the same accident, injured workers should not assume that receiving benefits from an employer or insurance carrier means that every potential maritime claim has been addressed.
Evidence That Can Make or Break a Maritime Injury Case
Maritime accidents frequently generate evidence that does not exist in an ordinary personal injury case.
Depending upon the casualty, our attorneys may investigate:
- Vessel logs;
- Safety and training records;
- Crew assignments;
- Maintenance records;
- Photographs and surveillance video;
- Voyage information;
- Electronic navigation data;
- Coast Guard reports;
- Incident reports;
- Job safety analyses;
- Inspection records;
- Equipment records; and
- Communications among vessel personnel, contractors, and terminal operators.
Preserving this evidence early can become especially important when responsibility for the accident is disputed.
Why Choose a Law Firm That Handles Maritime and Admiralty Cases?
A maritime injury claim is not simply a personal injury lawsuit that happened near water.
The case may turn on specialized questions involving seaman status, vessel status, LHWCA coverage, Section 905(b), unseaworthiness, maintenance and cure, vessel ownership, charter relationships, federal jurisdiction, limitation of liability, and general maritime law.
Gilman & Allison, LLP handles maritime and admiralty matters as a core part of its practice.
That experience allows our attorneys to analyze an accident from the beginning as a maritime case rather than attempting to fit it into an ordinary workplace-injury framework.
Talk to a Texas Maritime Injury Lawyer
If you were seriously injured while working aboard a vessel, loading or unloading cargo, working at a marine terminal, performing offshore work, or working anywhere in the Texas maritime industry, Gilman & Allison, LLP can evaluate whether you have rights under the Jones Act, LHWCA, Section 905(b), or general maritime law.
We represent injured maritime workers throughout Houston and the Texas Gulf Coast.
Call Gilman & Allison, LLP at (713) 224-6622 for a free consultation with a Texas maritime injury attorney.