When a maritime or oilfield worker is injured on the job, the first question most people ask is: “Do I have a case?” An experienced oilfield injury lawyer will begin with the better question—the one that shapes everything that follows: “Which law applies to me?”
In maritime injury law, there are two separate and distinct bodies of law that may cover an injured worker: the Jones Act and the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act (LHWCA). These are mutually exclusive remedies. You cannot recover under both. And the facts that determine which one applies to your situation are not always obvious, even to lawyers who don’t regularly practice in this area.
Getting it wrong from the start can cost you your entire case.
The Jones Act: Are You a “Seaman”?
The Jones Act, 46 U.S.C. § 30104, provides a negligence remedy for seamen injured in the course of their employment. But not every worker on or near the water qualifies as a “seaman” under the law. The term has a specific legal meaning, and whether you meet it depends on the facts of your employment, not your job title.
The United States Supreme Court established the framework for determining seaman status in Chandris, Inc. v. Latsis, 515 U.S. 347 (1995). Under that test, a worker qualifies as a seaman if:
- The worker contributes to the function of a vessel or the accomplishment of its mission. This is a broad standard. It does not require that the worker be a traditional deckhand or navigator. Cooks, painters, divers, mechanics, and crane operators working aboard a vessel have all qualified under this prong.
- The worker has a substantial connection to a vessel, or an identifiable fleet of vessels, in navigation. The connection must be substantial in both its duration and its nature. As a general rule of thumb drawn from Chandris, a worker who spends less than 30% of his time aboard a vessel is unlikely to qualify as a seaman. But the 30% threshold is a guideline, not a bright-line rule. Courts look at the totality of the employment relationship.
What this means practically: a roustabout who lives and works aboard a vessel for extended hitches likely qualifies. A pipefitter who occasionally boards vessels to perform work but spends most of his time on fixed platforms may not. The same job title can produce different results depending on the specific assignment, the nature of the vessel, and the pattern of the worker’s employment.
If you do qualify as a seaman under the Jones Act, you are entitled to pursue a claim for your employer’s negligence, recover maintenance and cure, which provides a daily living allowance and payment of medical expenses regardless of fault, and in cases involving an unseaworthy vessel, a separate claim under general maritime law.
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The Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act — When the Jones Act Doesn’t Apply
For maritime workers who do not qualify as seamen, the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act, 33 U.S.C. § 901 et seq., is the governing law. The LHWCA is a federal workers’ compensation statute that provides benefits to maritime workers injured upon the navigable waters of the United States, or in adjoining areas, including docks, terminals, piers, wharves, and, in many instances, fixed offshore platforms.
Unlike the Jones Act, the LHWCA does not require proof of negligence for basic compensation benefits. It provides for payment of medical expenses, disability benefits based on the worker’s average weekly wage, and vocational rehabilitation where appropriate. The tradeoff is that recovery is limited to those scheduled benefits. The worker generally cannot sue the employer directly for pain and suffering or general damages under the LHWCA.
Workers who typically fall under the LHWCA include longshoremen, harbor workers, shipbuilders, ship repairers, and workers on fixed offshore platforms. But the coverage line is not always clean. Workers in the “twilight zone”, those whose duties take them between vessels and fixed structures, have been the subject of extensive litigation for decades.
What You Can Actually Recover — And Why It Matters
Understanding which law applies to your case is not just an academic exercise. The difference between Jones Act coverage and a strictly Longshore case has a direct and significant impact on the types of damages that may be available. That gap can be substantial.
Under the Jones Act, a qualified seaman who proves his employer’s negligence is entitled to full tort damages, including:
- Past and future medical expenses — all reasonable and necessary medical treatment related to the injury, including future care;
- Past and future lost wages — what you have lost since the injury and what you may lose in the future based on your earning capacity; and
- Pain and suffering — compensation for the physical pain, mental anguish, and loss of enjoyment of life caused by the injury.
In addition, regardless of fault, a Jones Act seaman is entitled to maintenance and cure — a daily living stipend and payment of medical expenses until he reaches maximum medical improvement (MMI). The obligation to pay maintenance and cure is one of the oldest duties in maritime law, and an employer who willfully or arbitrarily refuses to pay it can face additional penalty damages.
Under a strictly Longshore case, the picture is considerably different. The LHWCA provides:
- Medical benefits — reasonable and necessary medical treatment is covered;
- Disability benefits — generally two-thirds of the worker’s average weekly wage during the period of disability; and
- Scheduled injury benefits — if the injury involves a body part covered by the LHWCA’s compensation schedule (such as an arm, leg, hand, or foot), the worker’s recovery after reaching MMI is capped at the number of weeks assigned to that body part under the schedule, regardless of how the injury has actually affected the worker’s life or career.
What the LHWCA does not provide is equally important: there is no recovery for pain and suffering in a standard Longshore claim. None. No matter how severe the injury, how long the recovery, or how dramatically the worker’s life has been changed, the LHWCA benefit structure does not compensate for those losses. The worker receives payment for medical expenses and a portion of lost wages. Once MMI is reached on a scheduled injury, the meter stops.
This is precisely why the 905(b) claim is so significant. When a worker covered under the LHWCA can establish that his injury was caused by the negligence of a vessel or its crew, Section 905(b) opens the door to full tort recovery — the same categories of damages available under the Jones Act. That means past and future medical expenses, full lost wage recovery, and pain and suffering. For a worker who would otherwise be limited to scheduled LHWCA benefits, a successful 905(b) claim can mean the difference between a fraction of what was lost and the full range of damages that may be available under the law.
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The 905(b) Claim — A Powerful Option When the Vessel’s Crew Is at Fault
This is one reason experienced maritime counsel can be important when evaluating a maritime injury claim.
Even when a worker is covered under the LHWCA and cannot sue his employer directly, Section 905(b) of the Act preserves the right to bring a negligence claim against a vessel owner when the injury was caused by the negligence of the vessel or its crew. This is not a workers’ compensation claim — it is a third-party tort claim that may allow recovery of damages, including pain and suffering, that the LHWCA alone does not provide.
In practice, this means that when the facts are not entirely clear on seaman status, an experienced maritime lawyer can plead the Jones Act as the primary claim, asserting that the worker qualifies as a seaman and is entitled to the full remedies that come with that status, while also asserting in the alternative, assert a 905(b) negligence claim against the vessel owner based on the negligence of the vessel’s employees or crew. The two claims are pled together, and the facts developed through discovery ultimately determine which theory carries the case forward.
This alternative pleading strategy is not a workaround or a technicality. It is a legitimate and important tool that reflects the reality of maritime injury cases: the line between Jones Act seaman and LHWCA-covered worker is often genuinely disputed, and a lawyer who commits too early to one theory without preserving the other may inadvertently close off a significant avenue of recovery for the client.
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Why This Is Not a Decision to Make Without Experienced Counsel
The determination of whether a worker qualifies as a seaman under the Jones Act is one of the most heavily litigated questions in maritime law. Employers and their insurers have every incentive to argue that an injured worker does not qualify — because seaman status opens the door to negligence claims, maintenance and cure, and unseaworthiness theories that can produce substantially larger recoveries than LHWCA benefits alone.
That fight begins early. By the time a case reaches litigation, the employer’s lawyers have already been building their argument. Witness statements have been taken. Timesheets and employment records have been reviewed. The company’s position on where your work fits in the legal framework has already been formed.
The injured worker who waits, or who retains counsel unfamiliar with the nuances of maritime law, is already behind.
If you were injured working on a vessel, a platform, a dock, or in any offshore or waterfront environment, the question of which law applies to your case deserves a careful, experienced answer, not a guess.
If you’ve been injured in the oilfield or while working on a vessel, consider speaking with an attorney about your legal rights. Contact our office for a free consultation to discuss your rights and options.
Rusty Galloway | Galloway Jefcoat, LLP | Lafayette, Louisiana
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