After being injured on the job, you may think that you are legally entitled to workers’ compensation benefits. However, if your job involves working on a vessel at sea, along the Gulf Coast, in a river system, or on an offshore oil rig, you are not entitled to workers’ compensation. Instead, you are covered by federal admiralty law, also known as “maritime law” or the “Jones Act.”

In order to be covered under the Jones Act, you must be assigned to a “vessel” and your job must contribute to the mission of that vessel. Basically, any job on the vessel will fit the definition. The following is a list of the types of jobs often covered by the Jones Act:

• Captains and crew members
• Roughnecks, roustabouts, drillers, toolpushers, derrickmen, company men, OIMs (Offshore Installation Managers), mud engineers, deck engineers
• Ordinary seaman, able-bodied seaman, deckhands, engineers, mates
• Tankermen and Barge workers
• Cooks, galleyhands, and other supporting jobs

Federal maritime law and the Jones Act are extremely complicated. Only a handful of law firms across the country employ Jones Act lawyers who can handle these types of complex cases.

While the average Jones Act settlement varies, at VB Attorneys, we have a track record of success when it comes to helping injured mariners get the compensation they deserve for their Jones Act injury claims.