On February 26, 2026, an underwater LOOP pipeline ruptured and dumped roughly 31,500 gallons of crude into the Gulf of Mexico off the Louisiana coast. By April, a federal class action — Trahan v. Louisiana Offshore Oil Port LLC, Case No. 2:26-cv-00714 in the Eastern District of Louisiana — had been filed on behalf of commercial fishermen, shrimpers, oystermen, and coastal businesses whose livelihoods depend on the waters LOOP now closed off. The Louisiana Department of Health Molluscan Shellfish Program shut down 106,299 acres of Terrebonne Parish shellfish harvesting grounds. If you live and work along the bayous out of Houma, Dulac, Cocodrie, Chauvin, Montegut, or Grand Caillou, this spill is your spill. It cost you money. And the law gives you a way to recover it.
I’m Joe Kopfler. I’ve practiced maritime and personal injury law in Houma for over thirty years, out of my office at 306 Grinage Street — three blocks from the Terrebonne Parish Courthouse. My firm has handled offshore injury, Jones Act, and oil-spill economic-loss cases out of the Houma-Thibodaux corridor since the 1990s. I’m not flying in from New Orleans, Baton Rouge, or somewhere else to set up a Houma satellite. I’ve been here. Call my office directly at (985) 851-3311.
The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port — LOOP — is the only deepwater oil port in the United States and handles roughly 13% of the country’s foreign crude imports. When a LOOP pipeline ruptures, the spill doesn’t stay offshore. Crude moves with the tide, the current, and the wind, and it ends up in the marshes, on the oyster beds, in the shrimp grounds, and along the marinas that working families in Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes rely on to feed their kids.
According to the complaint filed in Trahan v. LOOP, the February rupture released approximately 31,500 gallons of crude into Gulf waters. The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries confirmed the closure of Basin 12 — peak oyster and shrimp territory for boats running out of Dulac, Cocodrie, and Chauvin. For a shrimper working a 40-foot boat with a crew of two, even a 60-day closure can erase a full season’s income. For an oysterman whose lease sits inside the closed acreage, it’s worse: the beds may not produce again for years.
You don’t have to be on the boat that found the slick. You don’t have to live on the water. Under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (33 U.S.C. § 2701, et seq.), anyone whose income, property, or business has been measurably damaged by the spill has a right to pursue compensation. That includes:
If you’re not sure whether your situation qualifies, that’s exactly what a consultation is for. The conversation costs you nothing. The information we share — what you’d need to document, what to keep, what to throw away — is yours to use whether you hire me or not.
Under federal law and the Trahan complaint’s theory of liability, plaintiffs can pursue:
What you need to start: tax returns from 2023, 2024, and 2025 showing pre-spill income; trip tickets, dock receipts, or processor settlement statements; lease records if you hold oyster leases; and any documentation of expenses you’ve taken on since the closure. I help clients pull these together. If you don’t have all of it, we work with what you do have.
After every major Gulf spill, a wave of out-of-town plaintiffs’ firms opens “satellite offices” in Houma or Lafayette and starts running TV ads. Most of them don’t have a real office. The address on their Houma maritime lawyer landing page is a virtual mailbox, a rented conference room, or a yard sign in front of an empty building. When you sign their fee agreement, your case goes back to New Orleans or Baton Rouge and you talk to a case manager for the next two years.
I’ve worked Jones Act, offshore, and oil-spill files out of this office since the 1990s. I know which insurers cover which offshore operators. I know which judges in Section J of the Eastern District handle multi-district maritime litigation. I know the dock managers in Dulac and Cocodrie. When my clients call my office, they get me — or someone who works in the same building and has actually been on a shrimp boat. Read the story of my firm if you want the longer version.
Federal claims under the Oil Pollution Act carry a three-year statute of limitations from the date you discovered the damage. State-law claims for property damage and loss of use may have shorter windows under Louisiana Civil Code Article 3492. If a class is certified in Trahan v. LOOP, opt-out and claim deadlines will be tied to the court’s notice schedule — and those windows can close in 60 to 90 days. If you wait until you “see how the case shakes out,” you may find yourself locked into a settlement structure you had no say in.
Talk to a lawyer now. Even if you decide to wait, you’ll wait with better information.
The LOOP spill sits inside a larger body of work I’ve done for offshore and bayou workers over three decades:
You call (985) 851-3311. You talk to my office, not a national call center. We schedule a free consultation — in person at 306 Grinage Street, by phone, or video, whichever you prefer. I review your documentation, walk you through what your case is likely worth, and tell you honestly whether it’s worth pursuing. If it is, we work on contingency: I get paid only if you recover. If it isn’t, I tell you that too, and you walk out of the meeting smarter than you walked in. There is no fee for the consultation and no obligation to hire me.
Every day you wait makes your case harder to prove. Dock receipts get lost. Processor statements get filed away. Memories of which trips were canceled and which weren’t get foggy. The clients who recover the most are the ones who start documenting the day the closure was announced — and call a lawyer in the first 90 days.
Call Kopfler & Hermann directly at (985) 851-3311 or stop by 306 Grinage Street in Houma. If you’re not ready to call, use the contact form and we’ll reach out the same business day.
