The DOL-published National Average Weekly Wage and resulting LHWCA/DBA compensation rate caps.
If you were hurt doing maritime work but you are not a ship’s crew member, the law that most likely covers you is the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act. Whether it applies turns on two questions: what you do, and where you were hurt. In short: LHWCA coverage requires passing two tests at once….
If you were hurt working as a civilian contractor overseas, the Defense Base Act is the law that pays you, and the question you most want answered is what your claim is worth. The honest answer is that there is no single number, but the ranges, the benefit formula, and the factors that move a…
If you were hurt working on an offshore oil or gas platform, the single most important question is not how badly you were injured. It is which law covers you, because that one answer decides whether you are a Jones Act seaman, a Longshore Act claimant, or someone borrowing the law of the nearest state….
If a dock, shipyard, or harbor injury has put you out of work, almost every dollar of your Longshore Act compensation traces back to a single number: your average weekly wage. Getting that number right is the difference between full benefits and quiet, long-term underpayment. In short: Under the LHWCA, your average weekly wage (AWW)…
If you load, unload, build, or repair vessels and you get hurt on the job, you are probably covered by a federal law that most injured workers have never heard of until the day they need it. It pays your medical bills in full, replaces two-thirds of your lost wages, and does it without making…
If you are a dock, harbor, or shipyard worker, your LHWCA benefits pay your medical bills and a slice of your wages, but they stop well short of what the injury actually cost you, no pain and suffering, and only a capped share of lost earnings. The most valuable thing you can learn after a…
A denial letter from a Defense Base Act insurer is written to sound final. It is not. The DBA was built to compensate civilians hurt working overseas for U.S. government contractors, and it hands you something most injured workers never realize they have: a legal presumption that your injury is covered, a layered appeal process…
Not every injury from overseas contract work is visible. For many civilian contractors, the lasting wound is psychological, and the law that protects them recognizes it. But a Defense Base Act PTSD claim is also one of the hardest to get paid, because what you cannot see, an insurer will dispute. Knowing how these claims…
If you were hurt working overseas for a U.S. government contractor, the first thing to know is that a federal law almost certainly covers you, no matter your job title or your nationality. The Defense Base Act is the workers’ compensation system built for civilians who support U.S. operations abroad, and its protections are broader…
Offshore wind is one of the fastest-growing industries in U.S. waters, and the law governing injuries to its workers is still taking shape. If you were hurt building, servicing, or transporting components for a wind farm, the single most important question is whether you count as the crew of a vessel or a worker on…
