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Why ‘negligence’ can make or break a Gulf Coast accident injury lawsuit

bruce — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 17:11:45 +0000

You surely know what it means to be negligent. It means you forgot to bring your workout gear to the gym. You didn’t do the laundry before work and lack clean clothes. You failed to buy dog food and now Spot must eat from your pasta.

You know — you’ve been negligent.

But when “negligence” is used in the legal arena concerning an important thing like a maritime accident lawsuit, just what exactly does “negligence” then mean?It means something serious has happened as a consequence of an employer failing to do something. It means a worker was injured because an employer, in some way big or small, failed to exercise reasonable care and thus was negligent.

And it means you may be due a substantial amount of financial compensation in a Jones Act lawsuit or Gulf Coast maritime injury lawsuit if you are such a worker.

Such reasonable care refers to the kind of care that an ordinary person with ordinary prudence would have exercised in such a situation. When an employer or owner of a rig or vessel doesn’t behave with reasonable care, that employer or owner has shown negligence. And if an employee is injured as a result, that is the employer or owner’s responsibility.

How can an employer fail to show reasonable care? One way is failing to provide a work environment that’s reasonably safe, or failing to supply enough care to a vessel, ship or rig to ensure its condition is reasonably safe.

As for what it means to have a safe workplace, that means the vessel or rig must be safe enough so that workers can do their jobs without being exposed to unreasonable dangers or harm — provided such workers also show their own reasonable care, or caution, for their own safety.

Negligence also can be manifested by conditions on a vessel or rig. If conditions for work are hazardous or risky, then that is the employer’s responsibility. The employer also is responsible for a crew’s incompetence when it leads to an injury accident. After all, the employer hired the crew, oversees the crew and should have provided proper training for the crew.

Vessel or offshore rig employers also can be responsible in a Jones Act lawsuit if they allowed bad equipment to be used without making repairs, or if they don’t make sure that all equipment on board functioned properly. Such things definitely can lead to a work accident injury.

Employers also are negligent and are subject to Jones Act law if they do not meet federal safety standards or comply with safety rules and regulations. They also must notify employees whenever dangerous situations arise.

If any such negligence can be demonstrated in an offshore accident injury lawsuit, maritime injury lawsuit or Jones Act lawsuit, then such negligence should be a key element of the legal action.

Under the Jones Act, which has given rights to injured workers on the water since 1920, employer negligence has to be shown to have contributed, even if only in a minor way, to an accident causing work injury to a maritime or offshore employee.

In case you have more questions, don’t worry: We have more answers. You can find out by reaching out, either by phoning us at 1-800-566-3434 or by sending our free review form, shown to you on this page.

We can promise we won’t be negligent in receiving your inquiry. We also can promise that you won’t be charged for our legal services, since we’ll only be paid if your Jones Act lawsuit wins, and at that time, only from a part of the settlement.

Get a Gulf Coast Jones Act lawyer, and get the legal help you need to proceed with a maritime or offshore injury lawsuit.

Gulf Coast drilling work down offshore, but up onshore

bruce — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:17:39 +0000

If you live on the coast of Louisiana, Texas, Alabama, Florida or Mississippi and work on oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, the news is both good and bad.

The bad news is that drilling permits aren’t being granted as many times or as often as before the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil rig catastrophe, a disaster that took the lives of 11 offshore workers and disgorged America’s all-time worst oil spill a short distance south of Louisiana.But the good news is that jobs aren’t necessarily down, particularly in that state. That’s because energy companies who are frustrated by how long it’s taking for Gulf drilling to reach pre-spill heights are shifting workers to onshore gas drilling, at least in the state of Louisiana.

Some of this information comes from an economic alliance for the 10 New Orleans parishes known as Greater New Orleans Inc.

It reports that about half of the 99 energy companies it contacted indicated offshore operations had dropped. But the alliance also cautions that those with a complaint are mostly likely to respond to such a survey.

What precipitated all this was the downturn in offshore drilling following the Deepwater Horizon oil rig’s explosion, fire and sinking in April of 2010. The federal government put a moratorium on Gulf drilling immediately after the tragedy, and it lasted for six months.

But recently the feds have ramped up their efforts to open the way for new offshore drilling in the Gulf. For one thing, they’ve approved many more leases for sales.

Drilling has resumed, even by disgraced British energy giant BP, which operated the doomed Deepwater Horizon rig. And drilling rig jobs have’t necessarily declined.

Instead, some workers who might have worked offshore have been reassigned to onshore jobs handling shale drilling for gas. Indeed, Louisiana is not believed to have lost any of its 8,500 oil rig jobs as a result.

Yes, permits are not being granted as quickly as before, and fewer drilling permits are being granted. But the trend is upward after six months in which no permits were granted and no new wells were drilled. (The moratorium affected only new wells.)

Too, energy companies are raking it in, as usual. Their average annual revenue today is $104.5 million. True, that’s below the $136.5 million in average annual offshore revenues before the oil spill. But $104.5 million is still $104.5 million.

Meanwhile, offshore workers labor very hard for their wages, and one thing they ask and expect is to be safe in the workplace. Instead, such offshore workers or oil rig employees often face debilitating injury accidents on the job due to negligence by an employer, owner, captain or other crew member.

Has this happened in your family, and would you like to get started with an oil rig accident injury lawsuit? Then by all means, let us help.

We have the staff and resources to help you seek the money you deserve for an oil rig accident injury which wasn’t your fault, perhaps with support from a Gulf Coast Jones Act lawyer or a maritime attorney from our legal service or from veteran Gulf Coast law firm Jim S. Adler & Associates.

Phone us now at 1-800-566-3434 or notify us by means of our free online review form, above, and then count on us to get back to you speedily with assistance for your oil rig accident injury case.

Gulf Coast drilling may lag, but as they say, safety first

bruce — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:13:34 +0000

For whom do you feel more sympathy: giant energy corporations who deal in billions of dollars, or offshore oil rig workers who are often exposed to life-threatening if not fatal injury accidents on floating platforms and rigs?

We can answer where we stand: with the offshore workers. Too many have lost limbs, lives or livelihoods while big oil basks in its bottom line profits.

Now we’re supposed to feel sympathy for big oil — at least, that’s the way it appears. Royal Dutch Shell insists it is losing a billion dollars annually after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon catastrophe unleashed America’s worst oil spill ever, killed 11 offshore workers and prompted a six-month moratorium on new Gulf of Mexico drilling while energy firms re-addressed safety concerns.

To put things in perspective, Royal Dutch Shell is the largest oil company in all of Europe. Also, for the record, it was not the owner or operator of the Deepwater Horizon, though it appears to be paying a price for that rig’s disaster.

Yet the drilling moratorium only affected wells which were not yet in production, and it only lasted for six months. It’s already business as usual in the Gulf of Mexico off the coasts of Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. In fact, more and more drilling leases are being sold, as recently approved by the federal government.

Clearly, America needs oil. But Americans also need to be safe on their jobs. Americans need to be able to trust that an employer is doing what’s necessary to ensure their safety and to place that concern above rushed deadlines or bigger profits.

You can rest assured that Gulf Coast maritime or offshore workers’ needs after an offshore or maritime accident injury are our priority. We’ll fight for their right under the Jones Act to financial compensation for their accident injury losses, including their medical and heath care bills, their present and future lost wages or salary, and their suffering and pain due to an accident injury.

To learn more, simply submit this site’s free legal consultation form, featured on this page, or telephone us by dialing 1-800-566-3434. You’ll get a speedy reply with help for your accident injury claim.

We aren’t talking about billions of dollars here. But we are talking about what’s right. We’re talking about compensating injured workers for an accident injury which wasn’t their fault, perhaps by applying the Jones Act in a Gulf Coast Jones Act lawsuit.

We can help. Let us do so. Give us a call or a click, and let’s put American values in proper perspective by defending the legal rights of hard-working offshore or maritime employees.

Gulf Coast offshore jobs often have Houston employers

bruce — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 20:17:31 +0000

If you live in a Gulf Coast state such as Mississippi, Texas, Florida, Alabama or Louisiana, and if you work on an offshore rig in the Gulf of Mexico, chances are your employer is based in Houston, TX.

That’s because Houston, the Energy Capital of the World, is the home of at least 10 energy companies involved in offshore drilling operations for crude oil and natural gas beneath the sea bottom.

Such companies include such energy giants as ConocoPhillips, Shell, Halliburton and BP, which has its American headquarters in Houston.Other Houston-based firms doing offshore work include Noble Energy, Atwood Oceanics, Scorpion Offshore, Diamond Offshore Drilling, Hercules Offshore and Marathon Oil Corporation.

Of course, many other companies along the Gulf Coast and elsewhere are involved in offshore drilling operations in the Gulf of Mexico. And where such companies are headquartered can be a key factor in pursuing a Jones Act lawsuit after an offshore worker suffers an accident injury.

Under Jones Act law — a 1920 federal statute whose scope has grown via court rulings since then — a Jones Act lawsuit seeking injury damages can be filed in a federal court.

This means such a Jones Act lawsuit would be held in a U.S. District Court, and that court would be in the district where the defendant — the employer or energy company — has its base, home or headquarters.

So if an offshore worker employed by a Houston company was injured on the job due to the negligence of his or her employer, a Jones Act lawsuit filed in federal court would be held at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. That court is found in downtown Houston at 515 Rusk St.

On the other hand, after an offshore accident injury, an injured worker could choose to file a Jones Act lawsuit in state court — in the state where the worker lives. The Jones Act grants that choice to injured seamen or offshore workers.

Another Jones Act choice is opting to have a trial before a jury of your peers, or having the trial heard by a judge instead. A jury trial may be more beneficial to an injured worker, since a jury may be more likely to side with an injured individual who seems like them rather than a giant corporation whose negligence may have caused harm.

Keep in mind that the offshore rig or platform on which you serve must not be permanently fixed to the ocean floor, but instead must be a floating drilling apparatus. This enables you to qualify under the Jones Act’s protections.

Such protections extend to workers injured by the negligence of an owner, employer, operator, crew member or captain of a maritime vessel or offshore rig. If a rig or offshore platform’s owner is at fault, then the rig or platform can be declared unseaworthy and the owner can be sued. Otherwise, the employer may be sued.

What kinds of damages can you hope to collect in a Jones Act injury lawsuit?

For one thing, you can seek payment for your medical and health care costs due to the injury. You also can seek financial recovery for the fact that the injury prevented you from working and you lost present and future salary. And you can sue for the pain and suffering you and your family have endured.

In the event that you were hurt in an offshore accident which wasn’t your fault, alert a Gulf Coast Jones Act lawyer or maritime attorney with our legal service, and get the legal help you need to gain economic compensation — and justice.

And where can you find such help? Right here. Alert our legal service today and we’ll do our best to respond with assistance in assessing your prospects for an offshore injury lawsuit.

You can call us by dialing 1-800-566-3434 or by using this site’s free consultation form, indicated on this page. Then let us get busy helping you with your Gulf Coast offshore accident case.

Others shielded as BP moves to ban experts from trial over oil spill

bruce — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 20:07:37 +0000

Disgraced British energy giant BP, which portrayed itself as cautious and caring in costly TV ads after the Deepwater Horizon explosion, now is trying to cautiously distance itself from expert witnesses whose testimony could be damaging in the upcoming oil spill case in federal court.

Such testimony by plaintiffs’ expert witnesses could be expected to depict BP as a careless
corporation which failed to learn from its own mistakes. These mistakes include many other fatal accidents at its facilities over the years, including a 2005 Texas City, TX refinery explosion and fire which claimed the lives of 15 innocent workers while injuring 170.Ignoring the time-tested term “the buck stops here,” BP also would rather hold its partners in Deepwater Horizon’s work, Halliburton and Transocean, responsible for the rig’s fatal fire and sinking.

Yet U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier sees it otherwise. He’s issued rulings that neither Halliburton nor Transocean will be held accountable for cleanup costs for the massive oil spill during a trial starting Feb. 27 in his U.S. District Court in New Orleans, LA.

That doesn’t mean Transocean and Halliburton still won’t be subject to civil penalties for the oil spill under the Clean Water Act, or perhaps punitive penalties.

Someone must pay, because innocent people already have.

They include those who own restaurants, hotels and other businesses along the Gulf of Mexico coasts of the states Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida and Alabama. Much of the oil spill’s 206 million gallons of crude oil washed up on their shores or polluted their fishing waters.

A separate issue is the sad fate of 11 offshore workers who were killed in the explosion and fire in April of 2010 just southeast of Louisiana.

For legal issues such as those offshore accident deaths, you can look to our legal service of Gulf-Coast-Jones-Act-Lawyer.com or the Gulf Coast law firm known by the name of Jim S. Adler & Associates. We can fight for your legal rights after an offshore accident injury or death to someone in your family.

To begin, all you need to do is reach out to us — reach out by typing in your information on our free consultation online form or by dialing 1-800-566-3434 for assistance. By doing either, you’ll ensure that a legal representative will contact you quickly to assist you in assessing your prospects for a successful Gulf Coast offshore accident lawsuit.

Nor do you need to worry about paying your maritime lawyer or Gulf Coast Jones Act attorney. We won’t be paid unless your case wins, and even then we’ll receive only a part of the settlement.

Sound good? Good. Then call or write us today, and let’s get started getting you the Jones Act justice that you deserve.

Gulf Coast Deepwater Horizon offshore accident preceded by far worse historically

bruce — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 20:50:50 +0000

The 2010 Deepwater Horizon conflagration near Louisiana’s coast was a national tragedy. It unleashed the worst oil spill ever in the history of our country, spewing 206 million barrels of crude oil into the Gulf, and it led to the deaths of 11 men who were working on the MODU, or mobile offshore drilling unit.

Yet in historical terms, this was not one of the worst oil rig accidents in terms of fatalities. Indeed, a total of 770 offshore workers have been killed in the 11 worst such disasters, an average of 70 workers per accident.What has been the highest toll taken in human life by an accident involving offshore drilling? That would be the explosion and fire in 1988 which destroyed the Piper Alpha platform, located approximately 120 miles from Aberdeen on the Scottish coast. It claimed 167 lives.

Yet nearly as devastating was a 1980 oil rig disaster amid a fierce storm off the coast of Norway. The semi-submersible Alexander L. Kielland capsized, leaving 123 workers dead.

The drillship Seacrest capsized in 1989 in the South China Sea during a typhoon, resulting in 91 fatalities. Another 84 offshore workers perished in 1982 when semi-submersible the Ocean Ranger capsized in a storm near Newfoundland.

Every crew member — 81 workers in all — died when a drillship named Glomar Java Sea capsized during a South China Sea typhoon in 1983. And 72 persons died when the Bohai 2 jack-up rig sank during a 1979 storm in proximity to the coast of China.

Offshore workers also have perished in many helicopter accidents while being transported to or from a rig or platform. This happened to the worst degree in 1986, when the Brent Field Chinook helicopter shuttle crashed in the North Sea, killing 45.

(Helicopter shuttles crash regularly in the Gulf of Mexico. Such injuries or deaths are protected by maritime statute the Jones Act.)

A blowout on the Enchova Central platform off the Brazilian coast claimed the lives of 42 workers in August of 1984. In 2005, a support vessel collided with the oil platform Mumbai (Bombay) High North, taking 22 lives.

Another 22 offshore workers died when a jack-up rig, the Usumacinta, collided with a platform in a 2007 storm in the Gulf of Mexico. And 21 people died when the drilling barge C.P. Baker caught on fire in the Gulf in 1964.

Any loss of human life is a deeply felt tragedy, and this history of oil rig accidents only shows the enormity of such tragedies over the years. No loss of human life is a mere number, but nonetheless, the number of lives lost is staggering.

It’s vital for the families of offshore workers to know that they have legal remedies in the event that a loved one dies or is seriously injured in an offshore accident, particularly if the accident was caused by recklessness or negligence on the part of a platform or rig’s owner, employer, captain or a fellow crew member.

In such cases, notify a maritime attorney or Gulf Coast Jones Act lawyer immediately. Don’t rely on an employer to do what’s best for you and your family, since the employer may want to minimize damages in order to pay you less than you deserve. Instead, engage a maritime accident injury lawyer to fight for what’s right for you and your loved ones.

To do so, simply alert our legal service of Gulf-Coast-Jones-Act-Lawyer.com, or notify the longstanding Gulf Coast legal firm known as Jim S. Adler & Associates. We will do our best to help you promptly with your offshore accident injury needs.

Dial 1-800-566-3434 today or submit our free legal consultation form. Then get the legal help you need to protect your rights after an offshore accident.

Federal court ruling cuts Transocean slack in Deepwater Horizon disaster

bruce — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 20:46:34 +0000

You win some, you lose some. BP, formerly British Petroleum, lost one in federal District Court in Louisiana last week, even though it tried to spin things in a favorable light.

The bottom line is that U.S. District Court Judge Carl Barbier ruled that BP’s contract with Transocean, owner of the doomed Deepwater Horizon oil rig, does not hold the latter responsible for the majority of oil spill claims after the leased rig operated by BP exploded and sank in the Gulf of Mexico in the spring of 2010.That doesn’t mean Houston-based Transocean is off the hook — not by a long shot. But it does mean the company gains some shielding from the billions of dollars in damages involved in many lawsuits aimed at the oil spill, America’s worst in its history.

Disgorging 206 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico, the spill wreaked havoc on the area’s environment and on businesses along the coasts of Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida.

0The Deepwater Horizon rig was about 60 miles off the coast of Louisiana when it erupted in April of 2010, not only spawning the horrible oil spill but killing 11 offshore workers.

Though Transocean’s contract with BP affords it some protection from lawsuitw over the 85-day oil spill, it still may have to pay for punitive damages and civil penalties in litigation over the pill, the judge ruled.

The first phase of the trial he’s hearing starts Feb. 27.

For BP’s part, the owner of the Macondo well where Deepwater Horizon exploded is trying to hammer out agreements with the impacted states and with the federal government as well as with those pressing hundreds of lawsuits over the oil spill.

BP and Transocean officials differed over the significance of the ruling, with each claiming a victory of sorts. But both remain in the sights of the feds, who find fault in each company as well as in the firm that cemented the well, Halliburton.

Certainly someone is to blame for the calamity which cost 11 innocent offshore oil rig workers their lives.

Placing blame and making it stick is part of our job at Gulf-Coast-Jones-Act-Lawyer.com. We can provide you with an experienced maritime injury attorney or Jones Act lawyer to represent you in a maritime or offshore accident lawsuit on your behalf. Such a lawsuit can seek payments for your work injury loses such as medical bills due to an accident which wasn’t your fault.

If you or a member of your family has been injured in an offshore or maritime accident, know where you can find the legal help you need. Know that you can get support from our legal service or from the veteran law firm for the Gulf Coast known as Jim S. Adler & Associates.

You can reach us quite easily, either via our toll-free line of 1-800-566-1144 or our case review form shown on this page. All you have to do is signal to us that you have maritime accident injury legal needs. Then we’ll hasten to help you as best we can.

Get an experienced and knowledgeable Gulf Coast Jones Act lawyer for your case — and get justice.

Gulf Coast maritime injury can have many bases for a Jones Act claim

bruce — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 20:27:13 +0000

Do you work on a ship or vessel in the Gulf of Mexico, or perhaps on an offshore oil or gas rig or platform floating on waters off the coasts of Florida, Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana or Alabama?

If so, then you need to know where you can go after a maritime or offshore accident injury. And the place to turn is the 1920 maritime law named the Jones Act.Yes, it’s an old law, but it’s weathered many years and many challenges while sheltering injured workers on water with its legal protections. Such protections are provided in the form of the right to sue an employer for accident injury losses, among other things.

But these protections can’t come without meeting predefined conditions or bases. And many such bases or conditions are provided by the Jones Act statute.

Most of these concern negligence involved in allowing a ship, vessel, boat, rig or platform to be an unsafe work environment. And mostly such negligence is the responsibility of the employer of the injured worker, or in some cases the vessel owner who is also the employer.

So just what are some of these conditions that form the basis of a Jones Act lawsuit?

For one thing, an injured worker’s employer is responsible for providing you with a safe place in which to work. That means the employer is responsible for an accident injury if the vessel or rig has violations of safety rules, codes, laws or regulations. It also means the vessel must be equipped with the proper safety equipment.

Too, it means the ship or vessel must be reasonably in shape for its declared purpose. It even must have safety for its recreational facilities, which is also the employer’s obligation.

Mistakes or negligence by crew members whose actions cause an injury accident also are the employer’s responsibility, since the employer was the one who hired the crew members and was responsible for training them properly.

The buck stops here, as they say, and it behooves employers to provide competent crews not only to accomplish a ship’s mission, but also to provide protection for all crew members against each other’s mistakes.

And if a crew member falls into the water or jumps off of the vessel, then the vessel must try to search for that crew member and provide a rescue. If not, the Jones Act is violated and that is the basis for a Jones Act lawsuit by surviving family members if the crew member perishes.

In some cases, the employer is also the owner of a rig, ship, vessel, boat or platform in the Gulf of Mexico. In those cases, “unseaworthiness” can be established as the basis or cause for a Jones Act lawsuit.

Those who work in Gulf Coast jobs know how demanding maritime or offshore work can be. Avoiding dangerous hazards should not be added to those demands when an employer or owner is negligent and allows unsafe conditions to threaten workers’ safety.

If a large piece of equipment wasn’t secured properly and it falls and crushes an arm or leg on your body, that is the responsibility of the employer or owner of the vessel or rig. And that can be the basis of a Jones Act lawsuit seeing financial recovery for your medical bills, lost salary and pain and suffering due to the accident injury.

Don’t let anyone shrug off your Gulf Coast accident injury with the saying, “Accidents happen.” Yes, they happen, but they happen for a reason and are not unavoidable. Rather, they come from the negligence of an employer or owner who allows a vessel to be unsafe, perhaps in the name of expedience while pushing to deliver a project more quickly than is reasonably possible.

Whatever the reason, whatever the excuse, accidents don’t just happen. In many, many cases, workplace accidents are allowed or caused — allowed or caused by an employer’s negligence. And that’s when the Jones Act can help — help you and your family.

If you’re ready to get started seeking the money to which you are legally entitled after such a Gulf Coast accident injury, please know this: We are waiting to hear from you, and are ready to go to work for you.

And all you need to do is phone us, at 1-800-566-3434, or write us, by means of this page’s free consultation form. Then we’ll get back to you as rapidly as possible to assist you in sizing up your chances for a successful Jones Act lawsuit, perhaps with help from a Gulf Coast Jones Act lawyer.

Gulf Coast maritime or offshore workers benefit from Jones Act’s evolution

bruce — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 17:12:44 +0000

Do you work in a maritime or offshore job in the Gulf of Mexico? If so, you know that hazards on the job can lead to an accident injury, and often such maritime injuries are not the worker’s fault, but rather that of a ship’s negligent captain, fellow crew member, owner, operator or employer.

In such cases, the injured Gulf Coast worker from Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi or Florida has a legal right to sue for maritime injury losses — a legal right provided by the longtime maritime statute known as the Jones Act.That law was written more than 90 years ago, so you may wonder how it still can have pertinence and application today. Yet the fact is, the Jones Act remains a strong and viable legal remedy for accident injury to a maritime or offshore worker.

In part that’s because the Jones Act has evolved over the decades, not only by means of changes written into the law but also by means of court decisions which have affected its scope.

If anything, such changes have made the Jones Act an even stronger protection for those who work on the water.

For one thing, the meaning of the term “seaman” has been expanded over the years. This was the only term used in the original Jones Act to indicate the kind of worker protected by the law.

Now, “seaman” can mean even a worker on an offshore oil platform or floating rig designed to drill for natural gas beneath the ocean bottom — provided that the platform or rig floats and is not permanently fixed to the sea’s floor. “Seaman” also can mean someone who works on a dredge, as the law’s range has been expanded..

Further, in the 1995 Supreme Court case called Chandris, Inc. v. Latsis, the court determined that there are key ways in which to define a worker as a seaman who qualifies for Jones Act protections.

One of those ways involves the worker doing a job which supports the mission or purpose of the vessel, ship or floating rig or platform on which he or she works.

Another way involves the worker spending at least 30 per cent of his or her time employed on a vessel on navigable waters — a time that’s considered “substantial” under the court’s decision. Also, that vessel must be aligned with a larger group or fleet of vessels.

Thus, even if you are a cook on vessel and have no involvement in its navigation, you help that vessel to achieve its mission and are therefore considered a seaman under the Jones Act. And if you are injured on the job, you should qualify for Jones Act protections.

Such changes in the Jones Act have done much to broaden the original statute’s scope and help workers along the Gulf Coast or elsewhere to secure compensation for their losses after a work accident injury.

But for that to happen, workers need the help of a Gulf Coast Jones Act lawyer with our legal service, or via the longtime Gulf Coast law firm of Jim S. Adler & Associates. We can provide you with a Jones Act lawyer or maritime attorney to help you get the economic recovery you deserve for your work accident injury.

But we need to hear from you first. So notify us via our site’s free case evaluation form or by telephoning us at 1-800-566-3434, a toll-free number. You’ll hear back from us quickly with help for your Gulf Coast maritime or offshore injury case.

And you’ll never hear us ask you to write us a check. Your Gulf Coast Jones Act lawyer only will be paid if you win your case, and then only from a part of the settlement.

Gulf Coast leases to be sold for offshore oil, gas drilling

bruce — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 17:20:52 +0000

Residents of Gulf Coast states Mississippi, Texas, Florida, Louisiana and Alabama: Are you ready to get busy? That is, are you read to seek work on new offshore rigs and platforms in the adventurous hunt for crude oil and natural gas buried beneath the sea bottom?

If so, then you’re in luck, because not only is drilling already resuming and increasing in the Gulf of Mexico, but the federal government has approved selling leases that could lead to many more jobs on offshore platforms and rigs.This week, the BOEM — also known as the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management — made that announcement in the wake of President Obama’s energy initiatives declared in his State of the Union speech. Sale of the new offshore leases will be June 20.

This will be the first such sale for the Central Gulf area with the Macondo field. That’s where the Deepwater Horizon exploded and sank in 2010, unleashing America’s worst oil spill and killing 11 offshore workers. For the sale to be held, certain environmental studies had to be completed.

Indeed, the federal government has been cautious in allowing offshore work to resume in the Gulf. For a time a moratorium was placed on all drilling at offshore wells. But that moratorium was lifted, and a previous sale of leases opened up the waters to new drilling in the Western Gulf.

The June sale will be for as much as 38 million undersea acres, beneath which drilling is expected to descend to depths of as much as 11,000 feet, or over two miles. Such sites will be between 3 and 230 miles off the coast.

The energy reserves that these leases are expected to yield include as much as 4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and as much as 1 billion barrels of crude oil.

If you are trained as an offshore worker, you surely see this development for what it means to your profession. Many roughnecks, drillers, roustabouts and other rig workers will be needed for such offshore operations. In fact, rig workers already are in high demand.

Those workers for semi-submersible platforms, jack-up rigs, drillships and other platforms or rigs should be in even greater demand after new leases are sold and rigs are placed on such sites. Then more workers from Texas, Mississippi, Florida, Louisiana and Alabama can get to work.

Yet their work may have a downside. In the event that a negligent employer or operator allows safety conditions on a rig or platform to deteriorate, offshore workers may suffer accident injury — and even death — through no fault of their own.

When that is the case, those workers or their families should inquire about their legal remedies. In doing so, they may find that among the best legal remedies for an offshore accident injury is the Jones Act. And a place to get a Gulf Coast Jones Act lawyer is right here.

A maritime attorney or Jones Act lawyer from our legal service or from Jim S. Adler & Associates, an established Gulf Coast law firm, can fight for victims’ rights to economic recovery. This can come in the form of payments for the wages a worker couldn’t earn after his or her injury. It also can come as payments for pain and suffering, as well as for medical and hospital costs.

To learn more, simply submit our free legal consultation form, above, or phone us by dialing 1-800-566-3434. You’ll soon hear back from us with help for your case. Nor will we ask you to pay us, since we will be paid if your case wins — and only if your case wins — via the settlement.

You will never be required to write a check to us.

Signal your needs to us today, and let us start helping you with your Gulf Coast offshore accident or maritime injury case, perhaps with help from a Gulf Coast Jones Act lawyer.