Maritime injury claims are organized by a combination of three things: the job classification of the injured worker, where the injury happened, and what caused it. This hub presents the nine case types we cover, grouped so a reader can find the framework that fits their situation. Federal claim frameworks come first, then case types defined by worksite, then case types defined by the kind of incident. In practice many real cases involve more than one of these categories, and the section near the bottom explains how cases overlap. Each card below links to a full guide on the case type plus a way to talk with a maritime injury attorney about your specific situation.
Offshore Injury Help covers nine maritime injury case types, organized into three groups. The federal claim frameworks are Jones Act claims (for seamen on US vessels), LHWCA claims (for longshore, harbor, shipyard, and ship-repair workers), Offshore Injury Claims (the broader category of injuries to offshore workers, which often involves more than one statute), and Wrongful Death at Sea under DOHSA (for fatal incidents more than three nautical miles offshore). The worksite case types are Commercial Fishing Injuries, Commercial Diving Injuries, and Cruise Ship Passenger Injuries. The incident-defined case types are Offshore Burn and Explosion Injuries and Helicopter Transport Crashes. Many real cases fall under more than one of these categories simultaneously, which is why we maintain a dedicated comparison guide at /jones-act-vs-lhwca-vs-workers-comp. The case-type analysis on a specific claim is what a maritime injury attorney does. The hub below is the starting place, not the destination.
The four federal statutes that organize most US maritime injury claims. Worker status, location of the incident, and whether the injury is fatal determine which framework applies. Many real cases involve more than one of these at the same time.
For seamen who have a substantial connection to a vessel in navigation. Allows the seaman to sue the employer for negligence and recover lost wages, pain and suffering, and other damages, in addition to maintenance and cure benefits during recovery.
For longshore workers, harbor workers, shipbuilders, ship-repair workers, and others who load, unload, repair, or build vessels but do not qualify as seamen. Provides scheduled no-fault medical and disability benefits without requiring proof of employer negligence.
The broader category of injuries to offshore workers, which frequently involves more than one statute. Covers platform-based, vessel-based, and supply-boat-based offshore work. Common in the Gulf of Mexico, Outer Continental Shelf, and offshore wind operations.
For fatal incidents that occur more than three nautical miles from the shore of any state. Provides pecuniary damages to certain surviving family members. Often combined with a Jones Act survival action when the decedent was a seaman.
Case types organized by the kind of work the injured person was doing. Each of these worksites has a recurring set of injury patterns, regulatory considerations, and legal issues that make them their own category, even though the underlying statutes may overlap with the federal frameworks above.
Commercial fishing has long been one of the highest-fatality industries in the United States. Injuries on fishing vessels commonly involve gear strikes, falls overboard, hypothermia, machinery contact, and back injuries from hauling and processing. Most claims fall under the Jones Act and general maritime law.
Commercial diving covers saturation diving, surface-supplied diving, and other professional underwater work for offshore platforms, pipelines, ship repair, salvage, and inland marine construction. Claims commonly involve decompression injuries, equipment failure, differential-pressure incidents, and zero-visibility hazards.
For passengers injured aboard a cruise ship, on shore excursions arranged through the cruise line, or during embarkation and disembarkation. Cruise passenger claims have distinctive rules: the ticket contract typically shortens the limitation period and selects a specific forum for any lawsuit.
Case types defined less by the worker's classification and more by what happened. These categories tend to be severe-injury cases with multiple potential defendants and a substantial overlap with the federal frameworks above.
Severe-injury cases arising from blowouts, well-control incidents, gas leaks, fires aboard supply vessels, and explosions on platforms or rigs. Burn and explosion claims commonly involve multiple potential defendants (operator, drilling contractor, service company, equipment manufacturer) and complex causation evidence.
Offshore helicopter transport is the standard way workers reach and leave Gulf of Mexico and other distant platforms. Helicopter transport crashes generally involve a maritime law overlay because they are part of offshore employment, combined with aviation law for the airworthiness and operator issues.
The case-type categories above are presented separately for clarity, but real maritime claims often span more than one. A burn injury offshore can be a Jones Act claim, an LHWCA claim under OCSLA, and a general maritime negligence claim against a contractor at the same time. A wrongful death more than three nautical miles offshore can be both a Jones Act survival action and a DOHSA claim. A helicopter crash transporting workers to a platform can involve Jones Act, general maritime, and aviation negligence. The threshold question on a real case is which statutes apply to the specific facts. That analysis is what a maritime injury attorney does, and we have a guide specifically dedicated to the most common overlap.
Read: Jones Act vs LHWCA vs Workers CompNone of these is a substitute for legal advice on your specific case. They are starting points only.
Crew on a fishing vessel, supply boat, tugboat, towboat, dredge, drillship, semisubmersible, jack-up rig that is paid as a vessel under specific cases, or similar floating asset typically starts with Jones Act Claims. The threshold question is whether you qualify as a seaman, which turns on facts about your duties and your connection to the vessel.
Longshore workers, terminal workers, shipyard workers, ship-repair workers, and harbor mechanics typically start with LHWCA Claims. The benefits are scheduled and no-fault, but the system has its own rules.
Drilling and production workers on fixed platforms on the Outer Continental Shelf typically start with Offshore Injury Claims and then narrow from there. The Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA) extends LHWCA coverage to many of these workers, but the analysis is fact-specific.
For fatal incidents more than three nautical miles from the shore of any state, the starting point is Wrongful Death at Sea (DOHSA). Closer to shore, state wrongful death law may apply, often combined with federal maritime law.
Start with What to Do After a Maritime Injury. It is a procedural guide that does not require you to know your case type first. Or call us; the editor or a participating attorney can listen to the facts and help you find the right starting point.
Back to contentsStatutes of limitations and notice requirements vary across maritime injury case types. Jones Act claims generally have a three-year statute of limitations. LHWCA claims have shorter notice and filing windows (often thirty-day notice and one-year filing). DOHSA has a three-year limitation. Cruise passenger contracts often shorten the limitation to one year and require notice within six months. Maritime claim deadlines can be unforgiving. We have a dedicated guide on the timelines at Maritime Claim Timelines and Deadlines. If you are reading this and a maritime injury or wrongful death has happened recently, the most useful single thing you can do is talk with a maritime attorney soon, so the relevant deadlines are pinned down on the calendar.
Back to contents
Quick answers to the questions readers most often ask when they arrive at this hub trying to figure out which case type fits their situation.
Maritime injury claims are organized by a combination of three things: your job classification at the time of the injury, where the injury happened, and what caused it. A deckhand on a commercial fishing vessel injured during a haul is most commonly a Jones Act case. A longshoreman injured at a container terminal is most commonly an LHWCA case. A wrongful death more than three nautical miles offshore is most commonly a DOHSA case. The case-type hub is organized to help you find the framework that fits your situation, but in practice many real cases involve more than one statute and the analysis is fact-specific. A maritime injury attorney can run the analysis on the facts of your case.
Yes, frequently. A burn injury on an offshore platform can be a Jones Act claim (if you qualify as a seaman attached to a vessel), an LHWCA claim under the OCSLA extension (if you do not qualify as a seaman but were working on the Outer Continental Shelf), and a general maritime negligence claim against a third party (the contractor whose equipment failed, for example), all at the same time. A wrongful death of a seaman more than three miles offshore can involve both the Jones Act and DOHSA. A helicopter crash transporting workers to a platform can involve the Jones Act, general maritime law, and aviation law overlapping. The case-type hub presents the categories separately for clarity, but the analysis on a real case often spans multiple categories. See the How real cases overlap section above.
The Jones Act covers seamen, which generally means workers who have a substantial connection to a vessel in navigation. It allows the seaman to sue the employer for negligence and recover damages including lost wages, pain and suffering, and maintenance and cure. The LHWCA covers longshore workers, harbor workers, shipbuilders, ship repair workers, and certain other maritime workers who do not qualify as seamen. It provides scheduled no-fault benefits (medical care, disability payments) without requiring proof of employer negligence, but it caps recovery and generally prevents the worker from suing the employer in tort. The threshold question on which statute applies is whether the worker qualifies as a seaman under the Jones Act, and that question turns on facts about job duties and connection to a vessel. We have a dedicated guide comparing the two at Jones Act vs LHWCA vs Workers Comp.
Offshore injury is treated as its own category because the offshore work environment has a recurring set of legal issues that come up regardless of which statute applies: vessel versus platform status, OCSLA application of state law to the Outer Continental Shelf, jurisdiction of multiple federal agencies (Coast Guard, BSEE, OSHA), the role of contractor and subcontractor relationships, and the practical realities of working far from medical care and witnesses. The Offshore Injury Claims guide walks through how those issues shape a case, and links to whichever statute-specific guide is relevant to your facts. Most offshore injury cases ultimately resolve under one of the federal frameworks (Jones Act, LHWCA, DOHSA, or some combination), but the worksite considerations are common across them.
Start with the case type that most closely matches your work environment and what happened. If you were a deckhand, fisherman, tankerman, or other crew member, start with Jones Act Claims. If you were a longshore worker, ship repair worker, or harbor worker, start with LHWCA Claims. If you were working offshore on a platform, start with Offshore Injury Claims. If you lost a family member more than three nautical miles from shore, start with Wrongful Death at Sea. If you are not sure, start with What to Do After a Maritime Injury, which is a procedural guide that does not require you to know your case type first. If you would prefer to skip the reading and just talk with someone, the Find a Lawyer page connects you with a maritime injury attorney for a free consultation.
The federal maritime statutes (Jones Act, LHWCA, OCSLA, DOHSA) apply nationwide. Our editorial coverage is U.S.-focused. Our participating-attorney network covers the major Gulf Coast, East Coast, and West Coast maritime jurisdictions, which is where the bulk of U.S. maritime injury work happens. We can introduce you to attorneys in those jurisdictions or, when appropriate, refer to maritime attorneys in other states. We do not cover non-U.S. maritime law as a primary subject.
Time limits vary by case type. Jones Act claims have a three-year statute of limitations from the date of injury under most circumstances. LHWCA claims have shorter notice and filing deadlines (often one year, with thirty-day notice requirements). DOHSA wrongful death claims have a three-year limitation. Cruise ship passenger claims often have a one-year contractual limitation in the ticket terms, plus a shorter notice requirement. State-law claims that overlap with federal maritime claims may have shorter or longer deadlines depending on the state. Because the rules vary and missing a deadline can end a claim, our Maritime Claim Timelines and Deadlines guide walks through them, and a maritime attorney can confirm what applies to your specific case. Do not wait.
No. A maritime injury attorney works through the case-type analysis with you. You do not need to determine on your own whether you qualify as a seaman, whether the LHWCA applies, or whether DOHSA controls a wrongful death matter. Bring the facts: what your job was, where you were working, what happened, what injuries you sustained, what your employer has said since. The legal categorization is what the attorney does. The case-type hub exists to give you a frame for the conversation, not to require you to do the analysis yourself.
Cruise ship passenger injury cases share the maritime law framework even though the injured person was a passenger rather than a worker. They are governed by general maritime law and by the federal courts' admiralty jurisdiction, and they raise issues that do not appear in land-based personal injury cases: forum selection clauses in the ticket, the shortened time limits in the ticket contract, the choice between U.S. and foreign law, the interaction between the cruise line and the medical provider on the ship. A general personal injury attorney without maritime experience can be at a disadvantage handling these claims. We include cruise ship passenger injury because, like the worker case types, it is a category where maritime-specific legal knowledge meaningfully changes outcomes.
The Guides Hub contains procedural and how-to content that applies across case types. The most useful starting points are What to Do After a Maritime Injury (immediate steps after an incident), Maritime Claim Timelines and Deadlines (statutes of limitations and notice requirements), How to Vet a Maritime Injury Attorney (what to look for when choosing counsel), Questions to Ask a Maritime Lawyer (the questions a free consultation should answer), and Maritime Lawyer Fees and Contingency (how fee arrangements work). The case-type hub here organizes content by claim type; the Guides Hub organizes it by what you need to do next.
You do not have to figure out the case-type analysis on your own. Tell us what happened and what your job was, and a maritime injury attorney will walk through the framework with you. Consultations are free and there is no obligation. The conversation typically takes ten to twenty minutes.
9 case types covered · Reviewed by Michael Mangione · Free consultations · No obligation
Offshore Injury Help