Port Fourchon Boat Accident
Lawyers

The Port Fourchon Boat Accident Lawyers of Domengeaux Wright Roy & Edwards have decades of experience representing injured seaman and maritime workers throughout Louisiana, the United States and internationally. Maritime injury claims can be extremely complex, including proving negligence or unseaworthiness to maximize your recovery after an injury. Our Louisiana Jones Act Attorneys are prepared to help injured boat workers navigate these federal laws and obtain the benefits you are entitled.

The Jones Act is the legal statute that protects injured maritime workers who qualify as Jones Act seamen. This includes commercial fishermen and others who work on boats, drilling ships, barges and other vessels. As a worker on a boat or barge that is in navigable waters, you are likely a Jones Act seaman. Seamen work in dangerous conditions and over long hours. Because of the demanding work you do, the Jones Act requires the owners of vessels to pay a seaman for his or her medical care and living expenses when an injury or illness happens. These benefits are called “maintenance and cure.”

As a seaman you could also recover lost wages, as well as damages for pain and suffering you experienced during an accident – in addition to any pain and suffering from the medical treatment and recuperation from the injuries. The Jones Act also has provisions for future lost wages, medical expenses and if necessary, vocational training. Some of these awards are mandatory for an injured seaman and they are not dependent on if the employee was at fault. Negligence, or an unseaworthy condition, can be caused by a fellow crewman, the company that operates the vessel or the equipment on the ship.

General Maritime Law also provides recovery for seamen on ships for unseaworthiness. If you have been injured on a boat or barge, working offshore, as a commercial fisherman or in a port loading ships and cargo, you have special rights as a maritime worker. While maritime work is demanding, injuries aren’t part of the job description, and injuries should not be accepted as something that happen. You are entitled a safe workplace. Our attorneys understand your jobs, and how injuries could have been avoided. Our law firm has been successfully representing Louisiana maritime workers since 1957.

For those who don’t qualify as seamen but who work on docks, in shipyards, shipping terminals and ports near navigable waters, due to the demands of your work, you are covered by the Longshoreman and Harbor Workers Compensation Act.

Port Fourchon functions primarily as a land base for multiple offshore oil & gas support service companies. These industries are important to the economy of Louisiana, and we have represented a multitude of offshore workers who have been injured. Many were not aware of their rights. When you live in Louisiana, you will likely have friends and neighbors who work offshore for long stretches in the Gulf of Mexico, as over five of the 10 top employers in Lafourche Parish operate from or utilize Port Fourchon.