Forty-five years protecting the rights of Louisiana’s offshore workers — from the Gulf of Mexico to the rigs of Port Fourchon.
If you were hurt on a vessel, rig, or platform in Louisiana waters or the Gulf of Mexico, state workers’ compensation is probably not your strongest option. Federal maritime law — specifically the Jones Act, 46 U.S.C. § 30104 — gives qualifying workers the right to sue their employer directly for negligence. That means access to full damages: lost wages, future earning capacity, pain and suffering, and medical expenses, now and in the future.
The challenge is that maritime injury law is one of the most complex areas of federal practice. It intersects with admiralty jurisdiction, Louisiana state court procedure, OCSLA federal regulations, and the general maritime law doctrines that have developed over more than a century of case law. Most personal injury attorneys do not handle these cases. The ones who do — the billboard firms — often handle them from offices in Houston or New Orleans, assigned to a case manager who has never set foot in Terrebonne Parish.
Kopfler & Hermann has represented offshore workers and their families from our office on Grinage Street in Houma since 1977. We practice in Louisiana state courts, federal district courts, and before maritime arbitration panels. If you were hurt on the water, we want to hear from you.
Call us: (985) 851-3311
The Jones Act applies to “seamen” — workers who spend a substantial portion of their employment on a vessel in navigation. Courts have developed what practitioners call the 30% rule: if you spend at least 30% of your working time aboard a vessel (or a fleet of vessels under common ownership), you likely qualify as a Jones Act seaman.
What counts as a “vessel”? Crew boats, supply vessels, work boats, liftboats, semi-submersibles, jack-up rigs, and drillships have all been held to qualify. If your work regularly puts you on a vessel operating in navigable waters, the Jones Act may apply to you.
Your injury must have occurred while you were acting in the course of your employment. This covers injuries while performing your job duties aboard the vessel, but also injuries during transfers (helicopter, crew boat), while in company housing connected to your offshore assignment, and in certain cases while on shore leave if the circumstance is closely connected to your employment. Every situation is different and needs to be evaluated on its facts.
Under ordinary negligence law, a plaintiff generally must show that the employer’s negligence was a substantial cause of the injury. Under the Jones Act, courts apply what is called the featherweight causation standard: an injured seaman only needs to show that the employer’s negligence played any part, however slight, in causing the injury.
This is one of the most favorable causation standards in all of American law. It means that even when other factors contributed to an accident — a co-worker’s mistake, a weather event, the worker’s own partial error — the employer can still be held liable if their negligence contributed at all.
Unlike Louisiana workers’ compensation, which pays a fixed statutory benefit and bars a lawsuit against your employer, the Jones Act allows you to recover:
The difference in value between a workers’ comp claim and a Jones Act recovery can be hundreds of thousands of dollars. Getting the right legal framework on your case from day one is critical.
Not every offshore worker qualifies under the Jones Act. The right law — or combination of laws — depends on where you were working, what kind of vessel or structure you were on, and the nature of your employment.
If you work on or near navigable waters but do not qualify as a Jones Act seaman — dock workers, shipbuilders, ship repairers, harbor workers — the LHWCA provides a federal workers’ compensation system with benefits generally higher than Louisiana state workers’ comp. It also preserves your right to sue third parties (vessel owners, crane operators, equipment manufacturers) who contributed to your injury.
Workers on fixed platforms on the Outer Continental Shelf — beyond Louisiana’s three-mile territorial boundary — are covered by OCSLA, which applies the law of the adjacent state (Louisiana) as surrogate federal law. This often means Louisiana tort law applies, giving injured workers access to full damage recovery rather than just workers’ comp benefits.
When an offshore worker dies more than three nautical miles from shore, DOHSA (46 U.S.C. § 30301 et seq.) governs wrongful death claims. It limits recoveries to pecuniary damages, which is why it is critical to identify whether Jones Act or general maritime law wrongful death claims can also be pursued — they can in many cases, and they allow a broader set of damages.
Separate from the Jones Act, a vessel owner owes seamen an absolute, non-delegable duty to provide a seaworthy vessel. A seaman injured because of an unseaworthy condition can recover damages without proving the employer was negligent at all. Employers also owe every injured seaman the right to maintenance and cure — daily living expenses and all reasonable medical costs until the seaman reaches maximum medical improvement.
We evaluate every maritime injury case for all applicable theories of recovery, not just the most obvious one.
Louisiana’s offshore energy industry produces some of the most severe workplace injuries in the country. Kopfler & Hermann has handled — or co-counseled with national maritime firms on — all of the following:
If your injury happened on the water or offshore and is not listed here, call us anyway. The breadth of maritime law means there are often theories of recovery that injured workers and their families don’t know to ask about.
Louisiana is the center of America’s offshore energy economy. Our clients work at every level of that industry, across the full geography of South Louisiana and the Gulf shelf.
The largest U.S. energy port, handling roughly 90% of deepwater Gulf of Mexico production. Tens of thousands of workers transit Port Fourchon every year. Workers injured at Fourchon or on vessels departing from it may have Jones Act, LHWCA, or OCSLA claims depending on their specific role.
Refinery and petrochemical facilities line the River Road, and the Lower Mississippi serves as a major maritime highway. Dock workers, tug crews, and river barge personnel who are injured here frequently have LHWCA or Jones Act claims.
Commercial fishing vessels, crew boats, and supply vessels operating out of the Atchafalaya serve offshore infrastructure and the inshore oilfield. Workers on these vessels are often Jones Act seamen.
Houma is the operational hub for Gulf crew boat operators. Many of the largest inshore and offshore crew boat fleets are based in Terrebonne Parish. We have represented crew boat deckhands, captains, and roustabouts for decades.
The fabrication yards along the Lower Atchafalaya, including major marine construction facilities, employ thousands of welders, ironworkers, and pipefitters. Many are covered by the LHWCA.
Liquefied natural gas terminals and industrial facilities in Cameron Parish involve complex jurisdictional questions that sit at the intersection of maritime and general tort law.
Fixed platforms, semi-submersibles, and drillships on the Outer Continental Shelf are where some of the most serious offshore injuries occur. OCSLA and general maritime law govern these cases.
We are not a satellite office of a New Orleans or Houston firm. We are in Houma, and we know this industry, these waters, and these courts.
Maritime injury claims have strict deadlines. Missing a deadline almost always means losing your right to recover, regardless of how strong your case is.
These deadlines sound like plenty of time, but maritime injury cases require early action for reasons beyond the statute of limitations. The vessel that injured you may be repaired or taken out of service. Witness memories fade. Employer investigation teams and insurance adjusters begin building their defense within hours of an incident. If you reported only a minor injury and it turned out to be more serious, early documentation of the initial incident is often the most important piece of evidence in the case.
Report every injury in writing to your supervisor, no matter how small it seems. A pain that feels manageable on Day 1 can turn out to be a herniated disc, a torn rotator cuff, or a traumatic brain injury. The written incident report becomes the foundation of your claim. If your employer discourages you from reporting or tells you it is “not worth the paperwork,” that itself becomes relevant evidence.
There are plenty of law firms that will take your offshore injury case. Here is what we offer that most cannot.
Joe Kopfler has been licensed to practice law in Louisiana since 1977, a graduate of Loyola University New Orleans School of Law. He has spent his entire career within reach of the Gulf of Mexico. When you call this firm, you are not calling a call center. You are calling a lawyer who has spent four decades in the 32nd Judicial District and the Eastern District of Louisiana handling exactly these types of cases.
We have obtained multi-million dollar recoveries for offshore workers and their families. We co-counseled on the Beasley wrongful death matter and obtained a $2 million recovery for the surviving family. Our case results page reflects what is achievable when maritime cases are handled properly from the beginning.
When a case is large enough to warrant co-counsel from national maritime litigation firms, we arrange it — and we remain as local counsel throughout. Our clients get the resources of a national maritime practice with a local lawyer who is present at every hearing, knows the local judges, and answers the phone when you call.
We are a small firm by design. When you hire Kopfler & Hermann, you will communicate directly with Joseph Kopfler. No handoffs to a paralegal after the intake. No form emails. No mystery about what is happening with your case.
We take offshore injury cases on a contingency basis. You pay nothing unless we recover for you. There are no upfront legal fees.
Not every injury produces a viable claim. We will tell you honestly whether we think you have a case, and if we do not believe we can help you, we will say so and try to point you in the right direction. We do not take cases we cannot win.
If you or a family member was injured while working on a vessel, rig, or offshore platform — anywhere in Louisiana waters or the Gulf of Mexico — call Kopfler & Hermann for a free case evaluation. We come to you for serious injuries. If you are hospitalized or unable to travel to our Houma office, Joe Kopfler will come to you.
Email: joe@kopflerhermann.com
Kopfler & Hermann
306 Grinage Street, Houma, LA 70360
No fee unless we recover for you. All consultations are confidential.
Workers and fishing operators harmed by the February 2026 spill should also review our coverage of the LOOP oil spill class action and Oil Pollution Act claims process.
