Maritime Injury Resources
Eight Areas of Maritime Injury Law
Substantive, primary-source-cited guides to the federal statutes, Supreme Court doctrines, and practical realities that shape what an injured maritime worker can recover, and from whom.
Maritime injury law is a separate body of federal law that protects workers who are hurt on or near the water. It exists because the dangers of working at sea are unlike anything onshore, and because the U.S. Supreme Court and Congress have built, over more than a century, a specific framework of rights that ordinary state workers’ compensation cannot match. The eight practice areas below cover the principal categories of maritime injury work in the United States, from the foundational Jones Act through the newest frontiers in offshore wind.
Each area below links to a full guide explaining the relevant law, key cases, current benefit rates, deadlines, and what an injured worker or surviving family should do next. The guides are written for non-lawyers, but every legal citation is to a primary source you can verify.
The Jones Act
The Jones Act, 46 U.S.C. § 30104, gives “seamen” the right to sue their employers for negligence and recover full tort damages. It is the foundation of maritime personal-injury law in the United States, and most other maritime injury claims either build on or work around it. The two-part seaman-status test from Chandris, Inc. v. Latsis, 515 U.S. 347 (1995) determines who qualifies.
Read the full Jones Act guide →
Offshore Oil and Gas
Workers on offshore oil and gas platforms, drilling rigs, supply vessels, and tugs face one of the most legally complex injury landscapes in the country. The Jones Act, the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA), the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act, and general maritime law can all apply, sometimes to the same worker. Which law applies determines what damages are available.
Read the full offshore oil and gas guide →
Maritime Wrongful Death
When a maritime worker is killed at sea, the question of which law governs the family’s claim depends on where the death occurred. The Death on the High Seas Act (DOHSA) covers deaths more than three nautical miles from shore; the Jones Act applies to seamen; general maritime law (per Moragne v. States Marine Lines, 398 U.S. 375 (1970)) covers others in U.S. waters. The available damages vary substantially across these frameworks.
Read the full maritime wrongful death guide →
LHWCA / Longshore Worker Rights
The Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act covers dockworkers, shipbuilders, ship-repair workers, and other shore-side maritime workers who do not qualify as Jones Act seamen. It is a federal no-fault workers’ compensation system, but with substantially higher benefits than most state systems and the powerful Section 905(b) third-party vessel-negligence claim available alongside.
Commercial Fishing Injuries
Commercial fishing is the deadliest civilian occupation in the United States, with fatality rates 29 to 40 times the average U.S. worker per NIOSH data. Most commercial fishermen are Jones Act seamen, entitled to negligence claims, unseaworthiness, and maintenance and cure. The fishing industry’s share-of-catch pay structure and remote work locations create unique wrinkles in calculating damages and maintenance rates.
Read the full commercial fishing guide →
Cruise Ship Crew Cases
Cruise ship crew members from around the world work long contracts on foreign-flag vessels operating from U.S. ports. Substantively, they are Jones Act seamen with the same remedies. Procedurally, most cruise lines include broad arbitration clauses in crew contracts, often enforceable under the U.N. Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards and the leading appellate cases Bautista v. Star Cruises and Lindo v. NCL. The procedural questions can affect what crew actually recover as much as the substantive merits.
Read the full cruise ship crew guide →
Offshore Wind Worker Injuries
U.S. offshore wind is a newer industry that does not always fit neatly into the older maritime statutes. Workers on Crew Transfer Vessels (CTVs), Service Operation Vessels (SOVs), and Wind Turbine Installation Vessels (WTIVs) are typically Jones Act seamen. Workers on fixed turbine foundations and substations face a more complex picture; whether OCSLA’s worker-protection extension reaches wind workers the way it reaches oil and gas workers is genuinely unsettled.
Read the full offshore wind guide →
Defense Base Act Claims
The Defense Base Act extends federal workers’ compensation to civilian contractors working overseas under U.S. government contracts. Because of the “zone of special danger” doctrine from O’Leary v. Brown-Pacific-Maxon, Inc., 340 U.S. 504 (1951), DBA coverage often reaches injuries that ordinary workers’ compensation would not. The Act covers PTSD, traumatic brain injury, occupational illnesses, and deaths arising from overseas service.
Read the full Defense Base Act guide →
Not sure which area covers your case?
Maritime injuries often involve multiple overlapping laws. A free case review with an experienced maritime attorney is the right first step, with no cost and no obligation.