Both cruise ship crew members and passengers may be eligible for damages in the event of an accident or injury on a vessel. However, the laws governing compensation for crewmembers are different from those for passengers. Passengers on a cruise vessel could suffer fall accidents, or accidents in the swimming pool or other amusement facilities o...

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Maritime accidents are a special type of case. A person’s right to a maritime claim for an injury that occurred at sea can vary by the status of the person, whether the injured person is a passenger or a crewmember of the vessel on which the injury occurred.The legal issues involving accidents covered by maritime law can be totally different fro...

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Maritime attorneys and environmental groups will not quickly forget last year's Gulf of Mexico oil rig explosion and the resulting spill. In New Zealand, the government is struggling to contain that country’s biggest oil spill, resulting after a maritime accident earlier this month. The Liberia-flagged Rena ran aground on October 5 about 22 km ...

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The Air Accident Investigations Branch has completed its investigation into an offshore helicopter crash in the North Sea in March 2009 that killed 16 people, including 14 offshore workers and 2 pilots. The report blames the accident on the failure to identify a potential problem in the gearbox just one week before the crash. According to the r...

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Noble Corporation is continuing investigations into an accident at the Jurong Shipyard that injured more than 80 workers in December. The company now says that it has conducted an inspection of the Noble Regina Allen jack up which tilted on December 3, injuring several workers. The inspection has not revealed any damage to the legs, jacking syst...

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Russian transportation city officials are blaming errors made by the captain as the reason for the sinking of an Indonesia-flagged vessel in the Sea of Okhotsk. Russia's Far East transport department says that one of the main reasons for the capsizing of the Ginga was the violations of safety regulations by the captain of the vessel. The Ginga ...

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A container ship capsized Monday evening in strong winds off the east coast of China, killing at least 11 crewmembers. Two crewmembers are still missing. Officials said two rescue vessels and a helicopter were searching for the missing crewmembers Tuesday. One man lost consciousness and was rescued by helicopter. The vessel was on its way from...

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Two vessels collided near the Texas City Dike on Tuesday morning, shutting down a portion of the Houston Ship Channel. Both boats were deep-draft motor vessels, said a U.S. Coast Guard spokesperson. No injuries, damage or pollution were reported as a result of the accident, which happened just after 8 a.m. The vessels were anchored where the c...

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Seven crew members have been reported dead in a tugboat explosion tragedy off the coast of Qatar. The accident occurred one week ago, when an offshore LNG buoy terminal exploded. The crewmembers were conducting maintenance work on the buoy at the time of the explosion.  According to some sources, only one of the crew members on the tugboat esca...

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Investigations into a tanker accident, in which a tanker struck a part of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, are ongoing. The Overseas Reymar scraped out part of the tower support of the bridge in January. A 30-foot section of the fender of the tower was damaged. The United States Coast Guard released a statement in which it has said that of...

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A number of recent maritime incidents have had maritime lawyers concerned about increased access to technology on vessels, and the accident risks from this. In one incident, reported by the London P & I Club in its Stoploss Bulletin, a recent pollution-incident was caused by a duty officer's distraction.  The officer was apparently trying to ma...

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The questions of liability for workers injured in a maritime environment and the jurisdictions of the courts that may properly hear such maritime claims is complicated by issues such as state versus federal jurisdiction and liability for injuries that arise in areas where state versus national versus international territorial waterways may not b...

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A certain class of maritime workers qualifies for injury compensation under the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act. These workers include shipyard and ship building workers, longshoremen, dockworkers, port crane operators, and stevedores.  When these workers are injured, they are automatically eligible for compensation under the Act...

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Two chemical tankers collided in the Gulf of Mexico early Wednesday about 70 miles south of Galveston, according to U.S. Coast Guard officials. Both vessels were en route to Houston at the time of the crash. The Chem Sea, a 385-foot tanker, and Bow Kiso, a 557-foot tanker, collided about 4:30 a.m. Wednesday. The double-hulled Bow Kiso, a Panama...

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A Shell Oil drilling ship lost its mooring in Alaska’s Dutch Harbor last week, drifting dangerously close to shore. Despite witness claims, inspections by divers show no evidence that the ship ran aground.  The 571-foot Noble Discoverer is part of the Shell fleet getting ready for exploratory drilling in the Arctic waters of the Chukchi and Bea...

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The National Transportation Safety Board has released the results of an investigation into a maritime accident in the Sabine-Neches Canal last year that resulted in thousands of gallons of oil being spilled into the water.  The accident occurred in January 2010, and involved a collision between the tank ship Eagle Otome the cargo vessel Gulf Ar...

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The trial over the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill is set to begin this morning in New Orleans before a federal judge, with no jury. Attempts to reach a settlement over the weekend failed, but legal experts expect that one will be reached, at least with the U.S. Department of Justice, within the next few months.  Eleven men were ...

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A crew member died after falling into the cargo bay of a cargo ship docked in the Houston Ship Channel on Thursday morning. The worker fell from the deck into the cargo hold about 12:30 a.m. According to the U.S. Coast Guard, the ship was docked at Texas Terminal NO. 37 near Patrick’s Bayou. The man was pronounced dead after being rushed to Mem...

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An independent review panel looking at the deaths of four sailors during the April 28 Newport to Ensenada Race said the 37-foot sailboat Aegean ran aground on North Coronado Island. Initial reports suggested the sailboat has collided with a larger ship in the middle of the night. The U.S. Sailing Independent Review based its findings on informa...

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The Death on the High Seas Act is a set of maritime laws that provides compensation for family members of seamen killed in international waters. Under the Death on the High Seas Act (DOHSA), survivors of a seaman, who is killed at least three miles off US waters due to negligence, may be eligible for compensation. However, there are certain res...

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The U.S. Coast Guard had to undertake a medical evacuation of a containership crewmember, who suffered a serious injury on the vessel. The man was a crew member on the 855-foot Antigua and Barbados-flagged vessel Mare Phoenicium. The 62-year-old man had suffered a severed finger on his left hand. There is no information about how the injury occu...

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Close to a dozen people, including crew members and passengers, have been confirmed dead in the deadly Costa Concordia cruise line accident last week. While people have been seeing horrific images of the overturned vessel and the rescue operations, the New York Times is drawing attention to what maritime lawyers know is a serious problem - the l...

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The United States Coast Guard has released a Marine Safety Information Bulletin to provide guidance regarding the employment of non-American citizens on board US-flagged vessels. According to the guidance, vessel operators must be aware of the citizenship waiver limitations for vessels returning to the US after operating from a foreign port. Ac...

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The Chief Officer of a cargo ship which ran aground on the southern coast of the Island of Bute last year has been fined. The accident has been linked to the Chief Officer falling asleep at the wheel. The accident occurred on July 2, 2012, when the cargo ship Coastal Isle was on its way from Belfast to Greenock. Fortunately, there were no injur...

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Soon, maritime workers who suffer severe or multiple fractures in a workplace accident may have access to a much quicker treatment using ultrasound. Doctors in Scotland have successfully experimented with a new technology using ultrasound to treat fractures. The techniques have been used at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary. The technique involves us...

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Distracted operation of a vessel may involve more than cell phones and texting devices as maritime lawyers often see. The captain of a British ferry that crashed into a French fishing vessel in March this year was distracted by, among other things, a discussion of the way actress Halle Berry looked like in the movie, “Catwoman.” According to an...

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A new study finds that up to 30% of the American workforce is sleep deprived. Maritime attorneys believe that the situation is not much different on water. Seamen are at a high risk of suffering injuries when they are forced to work continuously without sufficient breaks.  The study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates th...

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A sightseeing vessel ran aground in Alaska’s Glacier Bay, filling the vessel with water. Seventy-six people were rescued, but none were seriously injured, U.S. Coast Guard officials said. The boat was stabilized after the accident, and there were no signs of spills or other pollution. Most of the passengers were transferred to a Holland America...

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Investigators are looking into the cause of a Hong Kong ferry boat collision that left 38 people dead, including five children, earlier this week. A high-speed ferry and a boat loaded with more than 120 people crashed during a holiday weekend, and the smaller vessel sank quickly.The maritime accident, which occurred on a clear night, is Hong Kon...

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U.S. Coast Guard crews rescued 14 people from life rafts and still are searching for the missing captain of the HMS Bounty, a replica 18-century sailing vessel made famous in Hollywood adventure films, including “Mutiny on the Bounty.” One crewmember was found unresponsive and later pronounced dead after the vessel rolled over in 18-foot waves f...

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The U.S. Coast Guard has ordered an investigation into why the tall ship HMS Bounty set sail and sank as Hurricane Sandy headed for the northeast last week. The search for the ship’s missing captain also has been called off."We'll be looking into anything that may have caused the incident or contributed to it, communications, records, schematics...

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Two BP workers have been charged in the deaths of 11 people in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf of Mexico. Robert Kaluza and Donald Vidrine, the highest-ranking BP employees aboard the Deepwater Horizon when the explosion occurred, have been charged with manslaughter, according to an indictment unsealed Thursday. They are accuse...

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There are many laws, statutes and precedents that apply exclusively to maritime law. There are different regulations and compensation rules for sailors, dock workers, shipbuilders and others who work in port environments. Cargo ships and cruise ships are often owned by citizens of other countries or registered in other countries. This means that...

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The maritime lawyers at our firm are no strangers to Transocean's sorry safety record. Now, offshore petroleum safety regulators in Norway have also criticized the company for its frequent violations of regulations.  The Norway Petroleum Safety Authority has ordered Transocean improve its maintenance oversight. The order came after an audit, ca...

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The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health’s Alaska Pacific Office recently conducted a survey of the best types of personal flotation devices for fishermen. The survey included fishermen, trawlers, longliners and gillnetters. The researchers found that fishermen in different types of work may prefer different types of flotation d...

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Some of the more frequent injuries that maritime lawyers come across are fractures. Most often, these occur during falls on the same level or from a higher elevation. Fractures can also occur when a maritime worker is struck by flying debris, or a falling object. An accident involving heavy machinery can result in a broken bone. Workers can fall...

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No crewmembers have been reported injured in a maritime accident involving a Transocean oil rig and a supply vessel off the coast of Newfoundland. According to offshore safety regulators, the collision involved the offshore drilling rig GSF Grand Banks, owned by Transocean Ltd. and working for Husky Energy Inc., off the Newfoundland coastline. ...

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The former head of the Bureau of Offshore Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement said last week that an increase in “complacency” since the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is threatening the changes in safety regulations and government oversight that resulted from the incident.  Michael Bromwich, speaking at a National Press Club ev...

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A U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer collided with a Japanese-owned bulk oil tanker Sunday near the Strait of Hormuz, at the mouth of the Persian Gulf. The crash occurred about 1 a.m. local time. The cause of the incident is under investigation, but the Navy said it was “not combat related.” No one was injured, and no spills or leakages were re...

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After three people were killed in a boat accident in California, investigators are trying to re-create the tragedy, and divers are searching for a recording device that had been mounted on the watercraft ridden by the victims.  The accident occurred in the Puddingstone Reservoir in Eastern Los Angeles County. The three women were on board on a ...

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A final set of federal safety regulations were issued last week for offshore drilling. The rules are a fine-tuning of the emergency measures enacted after the April 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion and subsequent oil spill. The rules deal with how wells are designed and the testing of the cement and barriers that are used to secure them. The go...

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Whether you work as a seaman, dockworker or offshore laborer, if you’ve been injured during the course of your marine industry job then you likely have rights under maritime law. Depending on your occupation, your injury claim is subject to different requirements and compensation rules. Qualified maritime lawyers can help you determine which la...

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A worker on an oil rig owned by Brazil's national oil and gas agency has been killed in a fall accident. According to Brazilian state-controlled Petrobras, the accident occurred last week on the PUB-03 oil rig, which is located in the Rio Grande do Norte in the northeastern part of the country. The worker and two of his colleagues fell on the d...

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BP has agreed to plead guilty to felony charges, as well as pay $4.5 billion in penalties, in relation to the April 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion that left 11 workers dead and resulted in a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.The oil giant announced it would plead guilty to 11 felony counts of “misconduct or neglect of ships officers” in ...

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The man involved in a deadly shooting at a beauty salon in California which killed 8 people, reportedly suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder brought on by a maritime accident he had been involved in. The man used to be a maritime worker, and had worked on tugboats, barges and fishing vessels. In 2007, he was severely injured in an accid...

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Offshore safety regulators in the United Kingdom have made what offshore injury lawyers believe is a major mistake, under pressure from drilling companies. The Health and Safety Executive, which is responsible for safety regulations in the North Sea has lightened the rules for reporting of offshore oil and gas drilling accidents. The announceme...

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A crew member has been reported killed in a deadly fire that raged through a tugboat near Prince Edward Point, Ontario. According to earlier news reports, the man, a chief engineer on the vessel, had sustained serious injuries. He has now succumbed to those injuries. At the time of the accident, there were six people on the vessel, including th...

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In rare cases, a maritime worker may have his rights to maintenance and cure denied because of undesirable behavior like alcohol or drug use. In a classic example of such a case, a worker who filed a lawsuit against Omega Protein Inc. has had his claim rejected. The man was a worker on board the company's fishing vessel, and sustained injuries ...

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A crewman on a tugboat on the Intracoastal Waterway had to be airlifted after he suffered an injury on the tugboat. The Coast Guard conducted a medical evaluation of the injured crewmen. The accident occurred about five miles off Rockport. The crewmember suffered undisclosed injuries, and required medical assistance. The Coast Guard launched re...

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The Jones Act is a maritime law that essentially serves as a worker's compensation statute for the high seas. The rules of a Jones Act claim are not exactly like worker's compensation, but can also provide additional benefits based on the conditions surrounding any particular injury claim.Any possible litigant should prepare for the initial cons...

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According to the International Maritime Pilots Association, a ship pilot was killed recently during a fall accident on a vessel. The 58-year-old pilot was on a vessel that was sailing on the River Elbe. At the time of the accident, the pilot was attempting to board the boat. He had been standing on a ladder, when he slipped and fell into the wat...

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While assisting in running pipeline on a platform off the coast of Mexico in 2010, a 40-year-old welder was injured when his hand was caught in a snatch pulley. The man suffered partial severing to 8 fingers and an injury to his right shoulder. The incident occurred when the worker was securing a cable that ran through a 36-inch pipeline. Witho...

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Five crewmembers were killed and three injured during a safety drill when a lifeboat from a cruise ship fell upside down into the sea earlier this month. The British-operated vessel was in port when the accident occurred, with about 1,400 passengers onboard. When emergency crews arrived on the scene, the small lifeboat could be seen capsized al...

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A British Petroleum executive is defending a report on the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion in federal court in New Orleans today. Mark Bly was in charge of the company’s investigation into the explosion that killed 11 people and sent millions of gallons of oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico. It’s the fourth day of testimony. The civil trial ...

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Families of seamen killed in the course of work may have legal recourse under U.S. maritime laws. The circumstances will determine which laws you are able to file claims under.  If your loved one was killed at sea while working, an experienced maritime lawyer can help determine your rights and assist you in deciding whether to file a claim. Wh...

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For maritime workers, the risk of on-the-job injury is higher than in many other occupations. Knowing your rights is important, and there are a host of errors many workers make when filing maritime claims after being hurt.Whether you have been injured already or are just looking to become informed about your legal rights, knowing these common mi...

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Investigations into the death of a chief engineer on an Australian cruise vessel during a routine drill, have focused on a lot of flaws in the systems in place on the vessel, the Oceanic Discoverer. According to investigations, the crew member died after he suffered crushing injuries when he was trapped in a watertight door. In March 2009, the ...

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A coalition of environmental groups from five states filed a lawsuit Monday in federal court claiming the Environmental Protection Agency rules on chemical dispersants used in oil spill cleanups do not adhere to clean water standards. The lawsuit says the EPA has not published regulations on acceptable use of such dispersants in response to oil...

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A person may have a maritime law claim if they have been injured while working aboard a ship, but there are many other factors that must be considered.The ship’s nation of origin, where the ship was, and who owns the ship or who employs the worker are all things to be taken into consideration when deciding whether a maritime lawsuit is a viable ...

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A maritime accident involving two barges on the Mississippi River led to an oil spill, and caused a portion of the river to be closed down recently. The accident occurred on the Mississippi River about 50 miles from New Orleans. The accident involved a construction barge that was being towed by the tugboat Alydar and the tank barge, which was b...

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Police have managed to identify the man who was killed in a barge accident in New Jersey recently. The man was killed when he was pinned under a barge under Route 35 on the Sayreville side of the Morgan Bridge. The deceased was a US Marine veteran.  There are few details about how this accident occurred. Some reports have indicated that the man...

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A maritime accident involving a cargo ship in Kentucky caused a partial bridge collapse last week. According to officials, the accident occurred near the US 68/KY 80 bridge over Kentucky Lake. The cargo ship, the MV Delta Mariner, struck the bridge in the late evening. The 30-foot vessel was carrying rocket components for Boeing at the time. Fo...

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If you have sustained a maritime injury, knowing where to turn can be quite difficult. This is especially true for individuals who are not familiar with maritime injuries, as trying to learn more about this type of injury and how it might affect you can be easier said than done.The most important thing after suffering an injury is to have a stro...

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The cruise line company that operated the Costa Concordia, the cruise vessel that partially sank off the Italian coast killing 32 people, has now launched a new cruise ship.  The Costa Fascinosa cost $530 million to build, and weighs more than 140,000 tons. The launch of the ship comes just months after the Costa Concordia disaster. The Costa C...

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Electricity is an integral part of the modern workplace, and therefore, workers in all kinds of industries may be exposed to electrical injuries. However, maritime workers may be at an especially high risk of serious electrocutions or electrical injuries, because they work in an environment that constantly brings electricity in contact with wate...

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Several crew members were reported injured after a vessel ran aground near the Sabine Jetties near Port Arthur, Texas, recently. According to the Coast Guard, its officers from Sector Houston-Galveston were asked to respond to the site of the grounded vessel. The MV Ms. Pearl ran aground on the west side of the Sabine Jetties. There were four c...

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An investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board has confirmed that pilot error caused a collision involving a chemical tanker and a container ship in the Houston Ship Channel last year. The accident occurred in the Houston Ship Channel in October 2011. The Greek-flagged tanker Elka Apollon was sailing outbound in the Houston Ship C...

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The use of separate MRI and PET scans to detect brain injury could soon be a thing of the past. The National Institutes of Health Clinical Center has begun using a device that combines both MRI and PET scans. The MRI scan can be used to look for abnormalities in the body, while the PET scan gives information about metabolic activity in the abnor...

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Francesco Schettino, former captain of the Costa Concordia, faced survivors of the fatal cruise ship crash as proceedings began in determining whether he would stand trial for allegations of manslaughter and abandoning ship. Six crewmembers, including Schettino, are under investigation, as well as three workers in Costa’s crisis unit.  Schetti...

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A tugboat pilot convicted in the July 2010 crash of a barge and tour boat that left two Hungarian tourists dead said in a deposition that the collision could have been avoided if he had been at his post. Matt Devlin, who is serving a one-year sentence for the maritime equivalent of involuntary manslaughter, was on a cellphone for a family emerg...

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Recently, the nation, and in fact the world, watched transfixed as news channels carried hour-by-hour coverage of the ordeal of passengers on the Carnival Triumph, as it floated helplessly on the water. A fire had disabled the engines, and the ship was left with thousands of passengers and crewmembers on board, and no power and no water supply. ...

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The U.S. Coast Guard on Monday continued to search for six missing fishermen after receiving a mayday call Sunday from the captain of a sinking ship. The call to the U.S. Coast Guard’s Houston-Galveston operations center cam about 1:15 p.m. and said the boat was taking on water. The captain was unable to report the vessel’s exact location, but ...

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According to a report by NPR, fishing continued to be the deadliest occupation for workers in the United States, accounting for 121.2 fatalities for every 100,000 workers in 2011. According to statistics by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, fishing continues to remain the most dangerous occupation in the country, even though the number of fisherm...

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The U.S. Coast Guard today halted the search for a cruise ship passenger who reportedly fell overboard into the Atlantic, 47 miles east of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Sunday night. Another passenger aboard the Allure of the Seas cruise ship, as well as a surveillance camera, witnessed the 21-year-old woman from Bartlett, Tenn., falling overboard....

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