Helping offshore workers injured in accidents on oil rigs, platforms, vessels, barges, and other offshore worksites in Lafayette and throughout Louisiana pursue the compensation available under maritime and offshore injury laws.
Decades of experience handling platform, rig, and vessel injury claims under the Jones Act and general maritime law.
Pursuing every dollar you are owed for medical bills, lost wages, and other damages.
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A serious offshore accident can leave you injured, disoriented, and unsure what to do next. Taking the right steps early can help protect your health, preserve important evidence, and protect your ability to pursue an offshore injury claim. A Louisiana offshore accident lawyer can investigate the circumstances of the accident and help determine which maritime laws and claims may apply.
Notify your supervisor or the vessel's captain right away. Maritime law requires timely incident reports, and delaying could weaken your claim.
Get evaluated as soon as possible, even if your injuries seem minor. Some offshore injuries are not obvious right away.
Take photos of the equipment, deck conditions, or hazards that caused your injury before anything is repaired or removed.
Ask that maintenance logs, safety records, and inspection reports be preserved. Employers sometimes lose these documents after an accident.
Coworkers who saw what happened can provide valuable statements while the details are still fresh.
Speak with a Louisiana offshore injury lawyer before giving a recorded statement to your employer's insurance company.
Offshore workers face hazards that can change quickly. A Louisiana offshore attorney can investigate whether unsafe conditions, inadequate training, defective equipment, poor maintenance, or other conduct contributed to an accident.
Collisions, groundings, falls aboard vessels, and unsafe transfers can cause severe maritime injuries.
Drilling and production operations expose workers to heavy machinery, elevated areas, and pressure systems.
Offshore fires and explosions can cause burns, traumatic injuries, respiratory injuries, and other life-changing conditions.
Pumps, valves, cranes, winches, hydraulic systems, drilling equipment, and other machinery can fail and injure workers.
Wet decks, damaged walking surfaces, poor housekeeping, missing safeguards, and unsafe access points can lead to serious falls.
Helicopters, crew boats, personnel baskets, and other transportation incidents can result in severe offshore injuries.
Workers may be placed at risk when employers fail to provide appropriate instruction, supervision, or safety procedures.
Poor maintenance, unsafe procedures, inadequate staffing, or hazardous work environments may contribute to an accident.
Offshore accidents can result in fractures, burns, traumatic brain injuries, spinal injuries, amputations, and other serious conditions.
Offshore oil rigs and fixed platforms present risks involving drilling equipment, cranes, pressure systems, heavy machinery, elevated work areas, electrical systems, fires, explosions, and worker transfers. When an accident occurs, identifying the worker’s status, the type of offshore structure involved, and the parties responsible for the worksite may affect which laws and compensation systems apply.
An injury on a vessel may raise different legal issues from an injury on a fixed offshore platform. Depending on the circumstances, a claim may involve the Jones Act, general maritime law, the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act, the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, or other applicable law.
Our Louisiana offshore injury lawyers investigate oil rig and platform accidents by examining the work being performed, equipment involved, safety procedures, contractors, ownership and operation of the facility, and the circumstances surrounding the injury.
There is no single offshore injury law that covers every worker. The applicable claim can depend on whether you qualify as a seaman, where the injury occurred, what work you performed, and your relationship to the vessel and employer.
Offshore injury claims may involve seamen, deckhands, tugboat and barge workers, oil rig workers, platform workers, crew members, and other maritime employees. Determining the correct legal framework starts with understanding the worker’s duties, work location, connection to a vessel, and circumstances of the accident.
Some qualifying seamen can bring negligence claims against their employers and may also have rights to maintenance and cure. A careful review of your work duties and connection to a vessel is important before assuming the Jones Act applies.
The Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act can cover certain maritime employees who are not members of a vessel crew. It provides a federal workers' compensation framework for qualifying work-related injuries.
The Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act extends certain workers' compensation protections to qualifying employees working on the Outer Continental Shelf in covered exploration and development operations.
J. Minos Simon, LTD. has represented injured offshore workers and their families in serious accidents throughout the Gulf. Every case depends on its own facts, and past results do not guarantee future outcomes.
Every offshore claim is different. The compensation potentially available depends on the applicable law, the worker’s status, the cause of the accident, the severity of the injury, and the evidence supporting the claim.
Claims may involve unsafe procedures, inadequate training, negligent supervision, staffing problems, or other employer conduct.
Unsafe vessel conditions, poor maintenance, defective systems, or operational failures may become important parts of an investigation.
Maintenance, inspection, construction, transportation, and other contractors may have responsibilities connected to the accident.
Defective products or components may create separate legal issues when a machinery or equipment failure contributes to an injury.
The operation and maintenance of an offshore facility may become relevant when unsafe conditions contribute to a worker's injury.
Some accidents require investigation of several entities before the full picture of responsibility becomes clear.
Maritime workers face unique risks on vessels and waterways. We help injured workers pursue available compensation.
We help people injured in 18-wheeler, tractor-trailer, and commercial truck crashes across Louisiana.
If you have been injured in a car accident, we can help you pursue compensation for your losses.
Motorcycle crashes can cause serious injuries. We help injured riders seek fair compensation.
Our personal injury attorneys help Louisiana residents pursue compensation when negligence causes injury.
We help injured pedestrians pursue compensation for medical treatment, lost income, and other damages.
For decades, J. Minos Simon, LTD has represented injured workers across Louisiana, including offshore workers hurt on rigs, platforms, and vessels throughout the Gulf. Our firm understands the maritime laws that apply to offshore work and fights to make sure injured workers and their families are not left to cover the cost of someone else's negligence. View Profile
Truck accident injuries are often more severe than injuries from a typical car accident because of the size and weight difference between commercial trucks and passenger vehicles. Depending on the facts of your case, you may be entitled to recover:
Our truck accident attorneys fully investigate the wreck to make sure every available source of compensation, including the trucking company’s commercial insurance policy, is pursued on your behalf.
Learn how the Jones Act allows injured seamen to pursue a negligence claim against their employer, and how it differs from standard workers' compensation. Read More
Understand the factors that determine whether an offshore worker qualifies for Jones Act protections. Read More
Learn how tugboat accidents happen and what crew members should know about their legal options. Read More
See the hazards barge workers face and how those injuries may be evaluated. Read More
Understand how defective or poorly maintained equipment leads to serious offshore injuries, and who can be held liable. Read More
Explore how crane failures and lifting incidents cause offshore injuries and who may be responsible. Read More
