Louisiana Offshore Oil Rig Injury Lawyer
Hurt on a platform, a jack-up, a supply vessel, or a crew boat out of Fourchon, Morgan City, or Lake Charles, and the first question is not just whether you will be paid but under which law. That answer decides everything that follows. At Lunsford, Baskin & Priebe PLLC, our attorneys represent injured workers across Louisiana and Mississippi, and a Louisiana offshore oil rig injury lawyer has to sort out whether the claim belongs under state workers’ compensation, the Jones Act, the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act, or the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act before a single deadline is calendared.
That sorting matters because offshore work does not fit neatly into the ordinary comp system. A derrickhand on a fixed platform in state waters, a seaman assigned to a vessel in navigation, a welder on a fabrication yard, and a roustabout on a platform on the outer continental shelf can each be covered by a different body of law, with different benefits, different forums, and different time limits. Insurers and employers know this, and some of them use the confusion to delay, underpay, or deny.
The injuries are rarely minor. Pipe handling, crane swings, slick decks, confined spaces, fires, and long rotations of heavy physical work produce spine injuries, shoulder tears, crush injuries, fractures, and burns. Our firm’s recoveries include a $221,000 settlement for a land-based oil rig worker with severe burns to the lower extremities and a $195,000 settlement for a derrickhand with complex left shoulder injuries from pulling large pipes. The work is different offshore, but the way carriers fight these claims is familiar to us.
Why Offshore Injuries Do Not Follow the Ordinary Comp Playbook
People searching for an oil rig injury attorney often assume every rig accident is a workers’ compensation claim. It is not, and the difference can be worth far more than the benefits a comp check provides. State workers’ compensation pays medical treatment and wage benefits regardless of fault, but it is the exclusive remedy against your employer and does not include damages for pain and suffering. A worker who qualifies as a seaman, by contrast, may pursue a negligence claim against the employer and may be entitled to maintenance and cure while recovering. A worker who is not a seaman but was injured on certain navigable waters or on the outer continental shelf may fall under a federal compensation scheme instead.
Which category you fall into usually turns on facts: what you were hired to do, how much of your work was tied to a vessel or fleet of vessels, where you were when you were hurt, and who actually controlled the work site. A catering hand, a mechanic, a drilling crew member, and a deckhand can land in different places even when they share the same rig and the same employer. Getting that classification wrong, or letting an insurer do it for you, can cost you the most valuable part of your case.
Louisiana state workers’ compensation still plays a major role for land-based drilling work, shore-side facilities, and rigs where state law governs. Benefits there include reasonable and necessary medical treatment, wage replacement while you cannot work, supplemental earnings benefits when you return at reduced pay, and additional benefits for permanent disability. Supplemental earnings benefits are tied to the gap between what you earned before and what you can earn now, and they can continue until release to full duty, a return to pre-injury wages, or the 520-week limit, with temporary total disability weeks counting toward that 520.
Why Choose Lunsford, Baskin & Priebe PLLC for an Offshore Oil Rig Injury Case
Lunsford, Baskin & Priebe PLLC is a workers’ compensation law firm that represents injured workers in Mississippi and Louisiana, including the oil field, industrial, and construction workers who make up much of the Gulf South economy. We have recovered more than $100 million in settlements for our clients. We do not take a case unless we can recover for you: no recovery, no fee, consultations are free, and the firm advances the costs of the case. Our phones are answered 24 hours a day, and we speak Spanish with clients who prefer it.
Rob Lunsford, Founding Partner, has spent his entire legal career representing injured workers. Partners Brad Baskin and Jennifer Priebe have been recognized by Best Lawyers, Super Lawyers, and The National Trial Lawyers, and the firm was ranked by Best Law Firms in 2026 for Workers’ Compensation Law, Claimants, in Jackson. Andrew Rueff has successfully tried dozens of jury and bench trials to verdict, which matters when an offshore claim involves a third party or a negligence theory that may not settle without litigation pressure. Keaton Belk and Erin Heimlicher round out the attorney team.
Our results show the kinds of injuries that come out of heavy industrial work: a $685,000 settlement for a surgical tech with a lower back injury, a $600,000 settlement for a construction worker with a complex back injury, and a $385,000 settlement for a project manager with back injuries after being struck in his work vehicle. Clients consistently describe a team that listens, stays in contact, and goes toe to toe with the insurance company on their behalf.
Injuries and Claim Types We See From Rigs, Platforms, and Vessels
- Back, Neck, and Spine Injuries: Lifting pipe, handling tongs, working in awkward positions on a pitching deck, and long hitches of repetitive labor produce lumbar and cervical disc herniations. Carriers frequently blame degenerative disc disease, and the answer is medical evidence tying the injury to the work.
- Shoulder and Knee Tears: Rotator cuff and SLAP tears are common among derrickhands, roughnecks, and deck crew, while meniscus and ACL tears follow falls on wet steel and stair-and-ladder work. Employers often call these old injuries.
- Burns and Catastrophic Injuries: Fires, flash events, steam, and chemical exposure on rigs and in processing plants cause severe burns and life-altering trauma that require specialized treatment and long-term care.
- Fractures and Crush Injuries: Dropped loads, crane and winch accidents, and pinch points on drill floors break feet, ankles, hips, and hands, often requiring specialists and complex surgical repair.
- Seaman and Maintenance and Cure Claims: Workers assigned to vessels may be entitled to daily living support and medical care while recovering, plus potential negligence claims against the employer or vessel owner.
- Third-Party Liability: Contractors, equipment manufacturers, platform owners, and other companies on the same job site can be separately liable, which may open a personal injury claim alongside your compensation benefits.
- Wrongful Death: When a rig or vessel accident takes a life, surviving family members may have claims for compensation death benefits and, depending on the circumstances, separate damages.
- Occupational Illness and Exposure: Hearing loss, respiratory disease, and exposure injuries develop over years in industrial environments and are often disputed as unrelated to the job.
What to Do in the Days After an Offshore or Rig Injury
Get medical care first, and tell every provider exactly how you were hurt. Offshore, that may mean a medevac to a Gulf Coast hospital before you have a chance to think about paperwork; once you are stable, make sure the mechanism of injury is documented accurately in your medical records, because insurers will compare those first notes against everything you say later. Report the injury to your employer in writing as quickly as possible. In Louisiana, notice to the employer must be given within 30 days of the injury, and missing that window can jeopardize a state compensation claim. A formal claim generally must be filed within one year of the accident, though the period can extend to three years from the last compensation payment if benefits have been paid.
Preserve what you can: photographs of the scene and equipment, names of crew members and supervisors who saw the accident, your pay records and hitch schedules, safety meeting notes, and any incident report you were asked to sign. Be careful with recorded statements and with any report an employer or adjuster asks you to complete, because wording that seems harmless can later be used to argue the injury was not work-related or was caused by something else. Do not sign a release or accept a lump sum without understanding which body of law covers you.
If your claim proceeds in the state system, it is heard by a workers’ compensation judge in the Office of Workers’ Compensation Administration, which operates district courts around the state, including New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Lake Charles, Houma, and Shreveport. You choose among the parish where the injury occurred, the parish where you lived, or the parish of the employer’s principal place of business. If the insurer denies a recommended treatment, the dispute starts with a medical treatment review: you have 15 calendar days after written notice of the denial to file Form 1009, and the medical director then has 30 days to rule. Challenging that ruling requires filing Form 1008 within 45 days of the decision. A final judgment from the workers’ compensation judge can be appealed to the appropriate Louisiana court of appeal, with a 30-day window for an appeal that suspends the judgment and 60 days for one that does not. Missing any of these dates can end an otherwise strong challenge.
Where a negligence claim against a third party is involved, Louisiana now applies a two-year prescriptive period to injuries occurring on or after July 1, 2024, and a claimant found 51 percent or more at fault recovers nothing for causes of action arising on or after January 1, 2026. Fault below that line reduces the award proportionally. Because these rules interact with your comp claim, it is worth speaking with a lawyer before assuming one deadline controls everything.
How Insurers Fight Rig Injury Claims
The most common arguments are predictable. The carrier says the accident was not witnessed or did not happen the way you describe. It blames a pre-existing condition, especially in back and shoulder cases, even though a job that caused, worsened, or accelerated a condition remains compensable. It sends you to a doctor of its own choosing and leans on that opinion. It pushes you back to work before your treating physician clears you, or it cuts off benefits without warning. In offshore cases, a further tactic is to insist you are covered by whichever system pays less or limits your remedies the most.
Our answer is evidence: complete medical records, treating physician opinions, witness statements from crew and supervisors, work history, and documentation of the physical demands of the job. We build each case so that the classification question, the causation question, and the damages question are all answered before the insurer has a chance to dictate the terms.
Questions About Louisiana Offshore Oil Rig Injury Claims
Is an offshore rig injury always a workers’ compensation claim?
No. Depending on your job, where you were working, and your connection to a vessel, your claim may fall under Louisiana workers’ compensation, the Jones Act, or a federal compensation program. The category determines what benefits you can receive and whether you can sue your employer, so it should be settled early.
How long do I have to report an oil rig injury in Louisiana?
Report it to your employer right away, and in any event within 30 days of the injury for a state compensation claim. Late notice is one of the easiest defenses for an insurer to raise.
How long do I have to file a claim?
A formal Louisiana workers’ compensation claim generally must be filed within one year of the accident. If compensation has been paid, the period can extend to three years from the last payment. Other claim types carry their own deadlines, which is why early legal review matters.
What benefits does Louisiana workers’ compensation cover?
All reasonable and necessary medical treatment, wage replacement while you are temporarily unable to work, supplemental earnings benefits if you return at lower pay, and additional benefits for permanent disability, catastrophic injury, or death.
What if my employer says my injury was caused by an old condition?
A pre-existing condition does not automatically defeat a claim. If the job caused, worsened, or sped up the problem, benefits may still be owed. The fight usually comes down to the medical evidence.
Can I sue my employer after a rig accident?
Under state workers’ compensation, benefits are generally your exclusive remedy against your employer. A worker who qualifies as a seaman may have additional negligence-based rights. Which side of that line you are on is a key question in an offshore case.
Can I bring a separate claim against another company on the rig?
Often, yes. If a contractor, equipment maker, or owner other than your employer contributed to the accident, a third-party personal injury claim may exist alongside your compensation benefits. Louisiana now applies a 51 percent fault bar to causes of action arising on or after January 1, 2026, so how fault is assigned matters a great deal.
What if the insurer refuses to approve my surgery or treatment?
You can challenge the denial through the state medical treatment review process. You have 15 calendar days from written notice of the denial to file Form 1009, and an adverse decision can be taken further by filing Form 1008 within 45 days of its issuance.
Can I be fired for filing a claim after a rig injury?
Louisiana protects workers from retaliation for filing a compensation claim. If you were terminated or punished after reporting an injury, tell us so we can review your options.
Will my health insurance or short-term disability pay while my claim is pending?
Sometimes, but those carriers may seek repayment if the work injury is later accepted, and using them without telling providers the injury is work-related can create billing problems. Talk to an attorney before choosing how to cover treatment during a dispute.
What does it cost to hire the firm?
Nothing up front. Consultations are free, we advance the costs of the case, and we are paid only if we recover benefits or a settlement. Attorney fees in workers’ compensation cases are limited and approved under state law.
Serving Offshore and Oilfield Workers Across Louisiana
Our work for injured oil and gas workers in Louisiana starts in the communities that supply the Gulf: Houma and Morgan City in the Terrebonne and St. Mary area, Lafourche Parish and Port Fourchon, and the bayou towns of South Louisiana. We also represent workers in New Orleans and the surrounding parishes, Baton Rouge and the Capital Region, Lafayette and Acadiana, Lake Charles and the Calcasieu area, and northward through Alexandria, Monroe, and Shreveport. Workers who live in Mississippi but work Gulf operations are served as well, from the Gulf Coast and Hattiesburg to Jackson, Madison, Southaven, the Delta, and north Mississippi. Wherever the rig, the dock, the plant, or the vessel is located, and wherever you live, our attorneys can review the claim and tell you which system governs it.
Talk to a Louisiana Offshore Oil Rig Injury Attorney Today
If you were hurt on a rig, platform, or vessel, the choices you make in the first weeks can decide which law applies and how much your claim is worth. Speaking with a Louisiana offshore oil rig injury attorney before you sign anything or give a recorded statement lets us identify the right claim and protect your deadlines. Our phones are answered 24 hours a day, consultations are free, and you pay no fee unless we recover benefits for you. Call our team today and tell us what happened.
