If you have been injured while employed on a drilling rig, it is vitally important that no time is wasted in getting the legal counsel that you deserve.
With years of experience, our offshore injury lawyers at Arnold & Itkin have been successful in recovering billions of dollars in verdicts and settlements.
For example, we helped represent a Louisiana seaman who had been working on a drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico. During the course of his employment, our client had suffered a serious injury to his hand. Our firm took on the case and filed in Texas, where our client's employee was based. We went to work seeking just compensation for medical expenses and wage lost, as well as pain and suffering. After months of negotiations, we recovered a settlement for $3,000,000 on our client's behalf.
To see more victories like this, please do not hesitate to browse through our case results! You can also click here if you are interested in requesting a free consultation from our firm.
Drilling rigs are essentially giant machines that are used to create holes to extract oil and gas—they are common on both land and offshore. When marine-based, these machines are often referred to as offshore oil rigs and oil platforms—in some cases may not even have a drilling rig attached. These offshore vessels are used to not only extract the oil and natural gas, but to also store them until it is transferred to land.
Common types of offshore drilling rigs include the following:
Unfortunately, offshore drilling rigs can be dangerous for the employees and result in serious accidents. From 2001 to 2010, the U.S. Minerals Management Service reported the following on offshore rigs:
This is often due to the inherently dangerous nature of working offshore with slippery working conditions, as well as adverse sea and weather conditions. Other common causes of drill rig accidents include:
Learn more about companies that drill and operate in the Gulf of Mexico!
In most cases, oil rig injuries are caused by the negligence of another. Whether your employer didn’t offer you proper training or a manufacturer provided faulty parts, there are a number of different parties that may be accountable. Even when human error resulted in your injuries, you may still be eligible for compensation under certain maritime laws. There are a number of different laws created specifically for offshore workers to ensure they get the financial compensation and support they need following a serious accident or injury. As one of the most dangerous industries, having these laws is important for maritime workers.
Some of the laws that may apply in your case include:
While each law or statute may be used for specific instances or apply to only certain workers and cases, they each overlap in some areas. One of the main things that almost all of these laws address is an offshore worker’s right to maintenance and cure. This refers to a maritime workers’ compensation for daily living expenses, such as room and board, as well as their reasonable medical expenses. The medical benefits are paid until a doctor determines that a maritime worker has reached their “maximum medical cure” or potential for healing.
While these laws help offshore workers exercise their right to fair compensation from their employers, oil rig injuries can often exceed the amount of financial recovery available through maintenance and cure. When the negligence of ship owners, operators, or crewmembers caused your injuries, you may need to pursue a claim under the Jones Act. This law specifically allows for injured oil rig workers to pursue personal injury damages.
The Jones Act allows workers to file a claim for the following:
Even if your claim does not involve all of these aspects, you have more options when pursuing compensation for your oil rig injuries. Whether you have suffered burn injuries due to an oil rig fire caused by a blowout or a spinal cord injury in a slip and fall or crushing incident, it is crucial that you seek the financial restitution you need.
If you were working on a drilling rig and suffered a serious injury, we encourage you to contact a maritime lawyer from Arnold & Itkin as soon as possible. We are proud to offer experienced legal representation for workers nationwide and have proven ourselves as serious trial lawyers for serious cases. With a contingency fee basis, you don't have to pay us a dime unless we are able to win your case. To learn more about how we can help, or to request your 100% free case evaluation, give us a call at (888) 346-5024 or fill out our online consultation form!
Arnold & Itkin represented nearly a third of the crewmembers injured in the Deepwater Horizon explosion.
Because maritime law is so complex and so complicated, it is crucial that you work with an attorney who has an in-depth understanding of how it works and who has proven themselves in similar cases before.
