Louisiana Maritime Lawyer

If you work in the maritime industry in the state, you might need a Louisiana maritime lawyer. A lawyer specializing in maritime law can help you get compensation after an on-the-job accident. Getting back to work and everyday life with an injury is challenging and expensive, but an experienced lawyer can help. 

What Do Louisiana Maritime Lawyers Do?

Louisiana maritime lawyers specialize in maritime law. Maritime law is the set of laws that govern issues related to the maritime industry. Louisiana maritime lawyers help maritime workers in the state. They represent them in injury cases, helping them to seek compensation. They also work with families of workers who died in maritime jobs.

Louisiana’s Maritime Industry

Louisiana has a big maritime industry. With many miles of coast along the Gulf of Mexico, the Mississippi River delta, and other canals and waterways, the state is a big player in commercial fishing, shipping, and offshore gas and oil. 

Louisiana has numerous small and larger ports, including

• The Port of Fourchon, which mainly serves the offshore drilling industry
• The Port of New Orleans, the sixth largest in the country, serving cargo shipping and cruise lines
• The Port of South Louisiana, the largest in the state and largest in the western hemisphere by cargo tonnage

The Ports of Louisiana

The Gulf of Mexico is a vast oil-producing region. A significant portion of the country’s petroleum products come from the bottom of the Gulf, dotted with oil rigs and platforms.

The Port of Fourchon

Port Fourchon serves over 90 percent of this industry, and there are more than 600 platforms right around the port. Over 1.5 million barrels of oil go through the port’s pipelines daily, and more than 250 companies use the port’s services.

In addition to oil shipping and transportation, Fourchon has an airport that ferries workers to and from oil platforms.

The Port of New Orleans

The Port of New Orleans is the state’s second-largest port and the country’s sixth-largest. It is a multi-purpose port with connections to interstates and six railroads for transporting cargo.

This large port has more than 20 million square feet for cargo handling and three million square feet for storage. It also has six cargo terminals, several container cranes, and plenty of berth space for big cargo ships.

The port also has industrial real estate space and cruise terminals serving more than one million passengers annually.

The Port of South Louisiana

La Place, Louisiana, is the state’s largest port, the Port of South Louisiana. It covers 54 miles of coastline and is the largest port by tonnage in the Western Hemisphere.

This is a major center for importing and exporting and handles the majority of grain grown in the entire Midwest region. Major imports include fruits and vegetables, coffee, rubber, and steel.

Louisiana Maritime Accidents

With such a big maritime industry, the state has seen its share of accidents on ships, platforms, and ports.

From collisions between vessels and bridges, to onboard fires, platform accidents, and incidents with cranes and cargo in ports, the accidents that occur in the maritime industry can range from mild to severe.

Many workers are hurt yearly in maritime accidents that could have been prevented. Although maritime work is inherently risky, precautions can save lives by preventing accidents. Accidents not only injure workers, but they can be deadly, too. Workplace fatalities are not unheard of in fishing, oil drilling, and port areas.

Fishing Accidents

All maritime jobs are dangerous, but commercial fishing leads to the most accidents, injuries, and fatalities. Fishermen face bad weather, rough water conditions, dangerous fishing equipment, and long, grueling work hours.

In one example of how fishing can go wrong, a vessel capsized in September 2014 off the coast of Louisiana. The fishermen were trawling in the Gulf when the ship turned over, and two crew members were lost and presumed dead. A third was injured.

The incident was blamed on the inappropriate use of trawling equipment, which made the vessel unsteady while maneuvering in the water.

Ship Fires

Fires are also major hazards in all areas of the maritime industry. On ships, however, they can be especially dangerous. In 2006, barges were towed through an oil field. They caught fire when an accident caused a gas pipeline to burst.

The accident occurred because workers failed to adequately secure an aft spud on the barge. It broke the pipeline when it fell, and the resulting gas caused the fire. Five workers died in the fire, while a few escaped the burning barges with only injuries.

Collisions

Collisions are too common in crowded canals, rivers, ports, and the Gulf waterways. In 2014, a barge being pushed by a towing vessel collided with the Florida Avenue Bridge in New Orleans, causing injuries to the captain that turned out to be fatal.

Additionally, the crash caused millions of dollars in damage to the ship and bridge. The fault was found to lie with the captain, who failed to check that his ship could pass under the bridge or that the bridge had been lifted high enough to allow them to pass under it.

Cruise Ship Fatality

The port areas can be just as dangerous as platforms and vessels on the water. This was illustrated by a tragedy in 2013 when a cruise ship worker died at the Port of New Orleans.

The accident occurred when the worker was on a cherry picker doing maintenance outside a cruise ship. He became wedged between the ship and a lifeboat platform and was crushed. It was a terrible accident that could have been prevented with better training and communication between workers.

Towing Vessel Fire

A fire broke out on a towing vessel on Lake Salvador in 2023. A hydraulic hose ruptured and sprayed a hot engine with fuel. The crew acted quickly to cut off the fuel and oxygen to the engine room. They then evacuated the boat unharmed.

An investigation found fault with the hydraulic hose installation. It exceeded its bend radius and did not have the right clamps and fittings. These issues likely led to the rupture and fire.

Confined Space Death

A worker died in a confined space while welding inside a ship in Houma, Louisiana, in 2024. Coworkers found him unconscious and administered CPR but couldn’t revive him.

An investigation into the accident is underway. Confined space deaths are all too common in maritime work. Confined spaces are often dangerous because they can quickly fill with toxic gases or be depleted of oxygen.

Legal Rights and Resources for Louisiana Maritime Workers

When workers in the maritime industry in Louisiana are hurt on the job, they have rights under federal law. Those rights include being able to seek compensation from employers to cover medical costs, lost wages, lost future capacity to earn, and more.

Surviving dependents also have these rights. If you are a seaman, an offshore worker, or a longshoreman working in a Louisiana port, there is a law that covers you and gives you an avenue for seeking compensation after an accident.

• For seamen, the Jones Act provides a way to sue employers if negligence can be shown to have contributed to an accident.
• For longshoremen, the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act provides funding for injured workers, no matter where blame is placed or if negligence is involved.
• Offshore workers face unique dangers on the job and are covered by the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act. They, too, can seek compensation after workplace injuries.

If you find yourself injured and unable to return to work, you face significant expenses. These laws can help you get the money to cover them if your employer refuses to pay you enough or at all.

Unfortunately, navigating maritime laws can be confusing if you have never done it before, so having an expert is a good idea. A Louisiana maritime lawyer can be your best friend in these challenging situations.

A maritime lawyer has studied maritime law and knows all the ins and outs. They know how to file claims, start lawsuits, and can be your representative in arbitration or a court trial.