Recent investigations into the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (“BSEE”) allege that deaths of offshore oil and gas workers frequently go unreported. Specifically, “inconsistent and missing data, as well as loopholes that allow some fatalities to go unreported, make the offshore industry appear safer than it really is.” Investigators allege that at least 30%…
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Like motorists, boat drivers have duties and responsibilities when operating boats in a safe manner. However, boating accidents are still a common occurrence, and damages stemming from these types of accidents can be substantial. Boat owners must make sure that crew members are trained and certified to operate commercial boats. They must also ensure that…
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The Fifth Circuit’s recent en banc decision in Sanchez v. Smart Fabricators of Texas, L.L.C., No. 19 20506,2021 WL 1882565 (5th Cir. May 11, 2021) upends 20 years of its own precedent and reformulates the seaman status analysis. The plaintiff in the lawsuit was a welder working on a jack up-rig. Sanchez had been onboard the second of two…
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In Sanchez v. Smart Fabricators, a unanimous, en banc decision of the 5th Circuit upended existing precedent in greatly narrowing the critical threshold issue of who qualifies as a seaman under the Jones Act. As one of the leading personal injury firms in the nation, and the longest operating in Texas, Abraham Watkins attorneys Benny…
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The availability of emotional injury claims in maritime law is unsettled. As it stands, recovery of purely emotional injuries requires proof of an attendant physical injury—or at least emotional injuries that present with concurrent physical symptoms. But a recent decision from the 5th Circuit potentially expands the scope of cognizable emotional injury claims. In In…
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An often overlooked component and independent cause of action in maritime injury claims is infliction of emotional distress. If you have been involved in accident and sustained psychological injury such as substantial distress, anxiety, grief, depression, insomnia, or other psychological symptoms without soft tissue or orthopedic injury, you or maritime employees who witnessed the event…
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Pilots, captains, and wheelmen are all primarily tasked with the safety of their crew and passengers. These seaman are also responsible for the safe navigation of their vessels, no matter the size or type of cargo. Some of the work shifts last 12-hours instead of 6-hour shorts, or tours. On March 15, 2012, the Dixie…
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No, a vessel owner or employer cannot unilaterally terminate maintenance and cure benefits without serious justification. Maintenance and cure requires that vessel owners and employers provide sick and injured seaman their basic living expenses and reasonable and necessary medical expenses until the point that they reach maximum medical improvement (MMI). But that raises a question:…
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