Oil Rig Accidents

The legal and regulatory framework in the area of oil rig accidents is complex and voluminous. The trial-tested attorneys at Mithoff Law have spent decades navigating that framework, and are familiar with how those laws and regulations are applied in a wide variety of contexts. Commonly-encountered statutes that may be applicable to an oil rig injury (or activities adjacent to offshore rig work) include:

The Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCS Lands Act) provides that, for most workers who are injured while working aboard rigs affixed to the outer continental shelf, their injury claims are typically subject to the laws of the state most adjacent to the location of the accident, so long as those laws are not in direct conflict with relevant federal laws.

Although typically used in cases involving boats, barges, or other large marine vessels, workers injured aboard mobile offshore drilling units, drillships, or service vessels may be able to file an injury claim under the Jones Act. Claims will often turn on whether the injury arises from the activities of a “vessel in navigation.”

Jones Act claims also require claimants to establish their status as a Jones Act seaman (generally, someone who spends a significant amount of time working on a vessel in navigation).

Offshore workers who qualify as seamen may also qualify for health and daily living benefits due to a principle of maritime law known as “maintenance and cure.”

The claims of many offshore oil rig workers are governed by the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act. The Act is distinct from the Jones Act, and provides different types of remedies from the Jones Act.

The Death on the High Seas Act can also impose additional requirements on maritime injury claims, depending upon where geographically the injury occured.