You got hurt on a vessel or a rig or a dock somewhere along the Houston Ship Channel. Now a company adjuster is calling your phone before you have even seen a real doctor. That call is not there to help you.
Here is the part nobody tells you at the gate. If you work on the water your claim is not a Texas workers compensation claim. Federal maritime law covers you instead. That difference is worth a lot of money. A Jones Act seaman has three years to file suit and can recover lost future earning capacity and pain and suffering and maintenance and cure. State workers compensation pays none of that. A good houston maritime attorney figures out which law applies to you in the first conversation and starts protecting evidence the same day. The Lopez Law Group takes those calls in Houston around the clock. Call (956) 968-7800 and talk to someone tonight.
Below you will find who qualifies as a seaman and what to do in the first 72 hours and what your claim may be worth and the deadlines that quietly kill strong cases.
A Houston maritime attorney represents seamen and offshore workers and longshoremen hurt on vessels and rigs and docks under federal admiralty and maritime law rather than Texas workers compensation. The Lopez Law Group handles Jones Act and unseaworthiness and maintenance and cure claims in Harris County and in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. Jones Act seamen have three years to file under 46 U.S.C. section 30106.
Fernando J. Lopez built this practice around working families. Not corporate clients. Not insurance companies. The people who pull the shifts nobody else wants and who come home broken because a company skipped a repair to save a few thousand dollars.
Mr. Lopez started in South Texas representing injured workers across the Rio Grande Valley in Hidalgo County and Cameron County. Oilfield hands. Truck drivers. Warehouse crews. The pattern was always the same. A company knew about a hazard and left it alone until somebody got hurt. Maritime and offshore work runs on that same pattern, only the stakes are higher because help is hours away by helicopter instead of minutes away by ambulance.
Attorney Lopez practices fully in Spanish as well as English. That is not a marketing line at this firm. It means your deposition prep happens in your own language. It means your wife hears the settlement terms from a lawyer instead of from a cousin translating over speakerphone. In maritime personal injury work that changes outcomes.
— Fernando J. Lopez, Founding AttorneyYou can read the full bio for Attorney Fernando J. Lopez and verify every credential listed here.
Maritime law is the body of federal law that governs injuries and contracts and accidents happening on navigable waters. Admiralty law is the same thing under an older name. For an injured worker it replaces state workers compensation with federal remedies. The Jones Act covers seamen. The Longshore and Harbor Workers Compensation Act covers dock and shipyard workers.
Sounds simple. It is not. Which law applies to you depends on what you were standing on and how much of your time you spend serving a vessel and how far from shore the accident happened. Get that answer wrong and you leave six figures on the table.
Attorney Lopez explains it to clients this way. Two men can be hurt the same morning fifty feet apart and walk away with completely different rights because one of them was assigned to the boat and the other one was assigned to the dock.
| Legal Framework | Who It Covers | What You May Recover | Deadline to File | Citation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jones Act | Seamen who spend roughly 30 percent or more of their time serving a vessel in navigation | Lost wages and future earning capacity and pain and suffering and disfigurement | 3 years from the injury | 46 U.S.C. sections 30104 and 30106 |
| Unseaworthiness under general maritime law | Seamen | Same damage categories with no need to prove carelessness | 3 years and laches applies | General maritime law |
| Maintenance and cure | Seamen | Daily living money plus all medical care until maximum medical improvement with no fault required | Owed the moment you are hurt | General maritime law |
| Longshore and Harbor Workers Compensation Act | Longshoremen and harbor workers and shipbuilders and ship repairers | Scheduled benefits and medical care plus a section 905(b) suit against a negligent vessel | 30 day notice and 1 year to file | 33 U.S.C. section 901 and following and section 905(b) |
| Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act | Fixed platform workers on the Outer Continental Shelf | Longshore benefits with adjacent state law applied as federal law | Per longshore rules or adopted state law | 43 U.S.C. section 1331 and following |
| Death on the High Seas Act | Families of workers killed more than 3 nautical miles from shore | Money losses only with no survivor pain and suffering | 3 years from the death | 46 U.S.C. section 30302 |
| Texas workers compensation | Land based Texas employees only | Limited medical and wage benefits with almost never any pain and suffering | 30 day notice and 1 year | Texas Labor Code section 409.003 |
| Concept | The Standard | What It Means for Your Recovery |
|---|---|---|
| Jones Act negligence | Featherweight causation. Employer carelessness played any part at all in causing the harm | The friendliest negligence standard in American law |
| Unseaworthiness | The vessel or its gear was not reasonably fit for its purpose. Strict liability | You never have to prove the company was careless |
| Comparative fault under maritime law | Pure comparative fault with no bar at any percentage | You can be 80 percent at fault and still collect 20 percent |
| Comparative fault under Texas law | Modified comparative fault and you recover nothing if you are more than 50 percent responsible | Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code section 33.001 |
That last row is why the governing law question matters so much. Texas personal injury cases live under the 51 percent bar. Claims under maritime law do not. A worker who would walk away empty handed from a Harris County car wreck case can still collect real money on a Jones Act claim with the same fault split.
Most people who call us did not think of themselves as maritime workers until the day they got hurt. If any of these sound like your job then federal law probably covers your injury case.
Deckhand hurt on a tug or a barge in the Houston Ship Channel. Mooring line snapback and unguarded winches and oily deck plating cause crush injuries in the busiest petrochemical waterway in the country. These are textbook Jones Act cases with an unseaworthiness count riding alongside.
Floorhand injured on a Gulf of Mexico rig. Tripping pipe and iron roughneck failures and dropped objects take fingers and hands and cause brain injuries on the drill floor. Whether offshore drilling work falls under the Jones Act or under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act turns on whether that rig was a vessel in navigation or a fixed platform.
Longshoreman crushed during cargo operations at Port Houston. Poorly secured loads and forklift strikes and failing lashing gear hurt workers at Barbours Cut and Bayport. Longshore benefits start the claim. The real recovery usually sits in the section 905(b) suit against the vessel owner.
Shipyard or ship repair worker hurt in Galveston or Texas City or Pasadena. Falls from staging and confined space asphyxiation and welding burns in dry dock. Longshore covers the benefits side while separate claims run against contractors and equipment makers.
Tanker crew member exposed to toxic cargo. Benzene and hydrogen sulfide and inert gas exposure in the Houston petrochemical trade cause poisoning that shows up years later. Air monitoring records and cargo manifests have to be locked down immediately or they cycle out.
Crew member hurt in a collision on Galveston Bay. Fog and heavy traffic produce wrecks where three vessel owners all point at each other. Coast Guard casualty reports and voyage data recorder files get overwritten on a schedule so somebody has to demand them fast.
Worker injured during a personnel basket or swing rope transfer. Moving between a boat and a platform in swell causes falls and near drownings. Liability usually splits between the vessel operator and the platform owner.
Family of a worker killed offshore beyond three miles from shore. The Death on the High Seas Act cuts survivor damages down to money losses only. Whether the death happened inside or outside that three mile line can swing case value by seven figures.
If you were injured in an offshore accident then the clock on your claim started the day it happened even if nobody told you.
Port Houston moves more total tonnage than any other port in the United States and it anchors the largest petrochemical complex in this hemisphere. Deep draft ships and tank barges and chemical terminals and shipyards and offshore supply boats all work the same 52 mile channel. That density is why Harris County produces more maritime injury litigation than any other county in Texas and why the Southern District of Texas carries a heavy admiralty docket.
| Statistic | Year | Source | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| 54,491,066 short tons of cargo handled at Port Houston public terminals, a 3 percent increase and the highest annual total in port history | 2025 | Port Houston Annual Statistics | Shows the volume of exposure sitting inside Harris County |
| 4.3 million TEUs moved through Port Houston, up 4 percent year over year | 2025 | Port Houston Annual Statistics | Container and cargo handling volume drives longshore and dock injury risk at Barbours Cut and Bayport |
| 52 workers nationwide killed in water vehicle incidents, up from 31 the prior year | 2024 | U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries | Baseline risk for seamen nationwide and a sharp year over year increase |
| 557 fatal work injuries recorded in Texas across all industries | 2024 | U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and Texas Department of Insurance CFOI | State level benchmark for how dangerous Texas industrial work remains |
| 22 percent of all Gulf of Mexico offshore injuries came from slips, trips and falls, many classified as major | May 2024 to April 2025 | Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement | Context for offshore drilling and platform injury claims |
Figures verified against published agency sources as of July 2026. Port Houston tonnage and TEU figures come from the port's 2025 annual statistics release. Fatality figures come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries for 2024, released February 2026. Offshore injury share comes from Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement reporting. Confirm against the most recent published year before you rely on them.
One more thing worth flagging. Plenty of maritime workers get hurt on the road running to and from a job rather than on the water. A crew van wreck on Highway 146 or on the Sam Houston Tollway is a Texas personal injury claim and not a maritime claim. Crash data from TxDOT and Texas DPS and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration drives those cases instead. Our Houston personal injury lawyer team handles both tracks so nothing falls through the crack between them.
No honest lawyer will quote you a number over the phone. Case value moves with how strong liability is and how permanent the injury turns out and what you were earning and where the case gets tried. What we can tell you up front is how we get paid. Contingency fee. Nothing out of your pocket and no fee at all unless we recover money for you. Families dealing with a fatal accident should also read about how a wrongful death lawyer handles the survivor side of these claims.
| Type of Damages | What It Covers | Examples | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maintenance | Daily living money owed to an injured seaman until maximum medical improvement with no fault required | Rent and utilities and groceries while you are off the boat | Employers set this far too low and it gets fought over constantly |
| Cure | All reasonable medical care until maximum medical improvement | Surgery and physical therapy and prescriptions and travel to appointments | No cap and it only ends at maximum medical improvement |
| Past and future lost wages | Earnings gone so far plus reduced earning capacity going forward | Missed hitches and a forced career change off the water | Usually the biggest economic piece |
| Past and future medical expenses | Treatment beyond cure including lifetime care | Revision surgery and prosthetics and attendant care | The life care plan sets this number |
| Pain and suffering | Physical pain and mental anguish available under the Jones Act and not under workers compensation | Chronic pain and post traumatic stress and ruined sleep | Depends entirely on your facts |
| Disfigurement and physical impairment | Permanent scarring and amputation and lost function | Degloving injuries and crush injuries and burns | Separate line item from pain and suffering |
| Loss of consortium | The spousal claim for lost companionship and services | Depends on which body of law governs your case | Restricted under the Death on the High Seas Act |
| Punitive damages | Available when an employer willfully refuses to pay maintenance and cure | Cure cut off with no medical basis behind it | Strong leverage and very fact dependent |
| Wrongful death and survival | Recovery for the family when a maritime worker is killed | Funeral costs and lost support and pre death suffering | High Seas Act limits survivors to money losses |
Strong cases die on a calendar more often than they die in front of a jury. Maritime deadlines are shorter and stranger than most people expect. The worst assumption you can make is that the ordinary two year Texas statute of limitations covers you.
Longshore notice closes in 30 days. Evidence disappears sooner. Get a free consultation today.
(956) 968-7800 Free ConsultationWe are not going to tell you we are the best law firm in the state. Every legal website says that and none of it means anything to a man sitting at his kitchen table with a shoulder he cannot lift. Here is what we can actually back up.
| Benefit | What It Means for You | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Contingency fee representation | Nothing comes out of your pocket and we only get paid from a recovery | A deckhand out of work eight months pays nothing while the case gets built |
| Immediate evidence preservation | Proof gets locked down before repairs and record cycling destroy it | A defective winch photographed and inspected before it was swapped out |
| Maintenance and cure enforced | Rent money and medical care start flowing while the case is pending | Cure reinstated after an employer stopped it on a company doctor finding |
| The right legal framework spotted early | The difference between comp benefits and full negligence damages | A man told he was just a platform hand gets analyzed for seaman status |
| Bilingual representation | Nothing gets lost in translation at deposition or in your medical history | A Spanish speaking client symptom description preserved accurately in the record |
| Federal and state court capability | We file where your case is strongest instead of where it is easiest | Venue chosen between federal and Harris County court based on the damages picture |
| Lien and benefit coordination | You keep more of what gets recovered | Medical and Medicare and longshore liens negotiated down before disbursement |
| Trial ready posture | Carriers pay more to firms that actually try cases | A demand backed by a finished damages model instead of a summary letter |
Ask any firm you call whether the lawyers there have successfully litigated maritime cases all the way to verdict. Then ask them to show you. Results are the only part of a law firm website that cannot be faked by a copywriter. The Lopez Law Group has recovered over $25 million for injured clients across Texas. A selection of firm results appears below; the full list is on our case results page.
| Case Type | Injuries | Outcome | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18-Wheeler Accident | Commercial vehicle collision | $1,200,000 settlement — Hidalgo County | 2024 |
| Wrongful Death | Fatal collision | $850,000 recovery — Webb County | 2023 |
| Construction Accident | Job site injury with surgery | $620,000 settlement — Bexar County | 2022 |
| Car Accident — Rear-End | Spinal injury with injections | $475,000 settlement — Cameron County | 2023 |
| Motorcycle Accident | Serious rider injuries | $380,000 settlement — Dallas County | 2022 |
| Workplace Injury | Multiple fractures and surgery | $310,000 recovery — Hidalgo County | 2022 |
Results shown are firm-wide personal injury recoveries and are not maritime-specific. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes. Every case is different and results depend on the specific facts and the law involved.
"I called at eleven at night from the dock and a lawyer picked up. Not a service. An actual lawyer. That told me everything I needed to know about this office."
"My husband speaks very little English and the insurance adjuster kept calling him anyway. Attorney Lopez handled every conversation in Spanish and explained the settlement to both of us until we actually got it."
"They told me honestly that part of my case was weak. Nobody else had done that. I trusted them more because of it and the result was better than I expected."
Gulf Coast maritime work brings us cases from across the Houston area and down the coast:
We take maritime cases arising anywhere in the Gulf of Mexico and along the Texas coast no matter where you live. Workers hurt on land can read more about our workplace injury lawyer practice and our broader Texas personal injury lawyer services.
A maritime attorney represents workers hurt on vessels and rigs and docks under federal law instead of state workers compensation. That includes filing Jones Act suits and unseaworthiness claims and demanding maintenance and cure and pursuing longshore benefits and third party suits against negligent vessel owners on navigable waters.
Houston maritime attorneys handle cases from the Ship Channel and the Port of Houston and the offshore Gulf. Most also handle the wrongful death side when a maritime worker is killed.
You are likely a seaman if you spend roughly 30 percent or more of your working time serving a vessel in navigation and your duties contribute to the function of that vessel. Courts look at your connection to a vessel or an identifiable fleet in both duration and nature. Job titles do not decide it.
Barge hands and tug crews and dredge workers and supply boat crews usually qualify. Fixed platform workers usually do not. The answer often decides whether your claim is worth six figures or seven so it deserves a real analysis and not a guess.
Nothing up front. Maritime injury lawyers work on a contingency fee which means the firm takes an agreed percentage of what it recovers and collects nothing if it recovers nothing. Your consultation is free and you never write a check out of pocket while the case is pending.
Ask for the fee agreement in writing and read the section on case expenses before you sign anything.
Jones Act and unseaworthiness claims must be filed within 3 years of the injury under 46 U.S.C. section 30106. Longshore claims require written notice within 30 days and a filed claim within 1 year. Ordinary Texas personal injury claims run 2 years under the Civil Practice and Remedies Code.
Ticket contracts and employment agreements sometimes shorten those windows so confirm your actual deadline with a lawyer early.
Maintenance is a daily living allowance and cure is payment of your medical care. Both are owed to an injured seaman with no fault required and both continue until you reach maximum medical improvement. Your employer owes them whether or not anyone did anything wrong.
Most companies open with a maintenance rate set in an old contract that no longer covers real rent in the Houston area. That number can be challenged and it often gets raised.
Generally you cannot sue your employer directly because longshore benefits are the exclusive remedy against them. You can sue the vessel owner for negligence under 33 U.S.C. section 905(b) and you can sue equipment makers and outside contractors whose carelessness hurt you.
That third party suit is where longshore workers recover pain and suffering. Benefits alone rarely come close to full value.
No. You are not required to give a recorded statement to an insurance adjuster before speaking with your own lawyer and doing so almost never helps you. Adjusters are trained to draw out admissions about old injuries and about what you might have done differently that day.
Politely decline and take the number and pass it to your attorney.
The Jones Act is a federal negligence law that lets an injured seaman recover full damages including pain and suffering and future earning capacity. Texas workers compensation is a no fault benefits system that pays limited wages and medical care and almost never pays for pain and suffering.
The comparison table earlier on this page breaks down which system applies to which worker.
You can still recover. Federal maritime law uses pure comparative fault which reduces your damages by your share of the blame but never bars the claim outright. A seaman found 70 percent responsible may still collect 30 percent of the damages awarded.
Texas state claims work differently under the 51 percent bar so which law governs your case changes the math completely.
Yes. Surviving family members may bring claims for lost financial support and funeral expenses and in some situations the suffering the worker endured before death. Which law applies depends on where the death occurred and whether the worker qualified as a seaman.
Deaths more than 3 nautical miles offshore fall under the Death on the High Seas Act which limits survivors to money losses only.
Not always. Admiralty jurisdiction lets many maritime claims proceed in federal court and the saving to suitors clause lets plaintiffs bring most of them in state court instead. Venue depends on where the accident happened and where the defendants do business.
For Gulf Coast cases the Southern District of Texas and Harris County district courts are both common choices and the decision affects your jury rights.
Most maritime injury cases resolve somewhere between one and three years. The timeline moves with how contested liability is and how long your medical treatment runs and whether the defense forces the case to trial. Cases rarely settle for full value before doctors know your permanent condition.
Rushing to settle before maximum medical improvement is the fastest way to leave money behind.
Start with the State Bar of Texas online directory which shows license status and any disciplinary history. You can also check whether a lawyer is certified by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization in personal injury trial law and look at peer recognition listings.
Texas Super Lawyers and the Best Lawyers in America listings and Best Law Firms rankings are peer reviewed sources. None of them replaces asking a firm directly about maritime cases it has taken to verdict.
Yes. The Lopez Law Group practices fully in Spanish and in English which covers everything from the first phone call through deposition preparation and settlement conferences. Nothing about your case gets filtered through a translator who does not know maritime law.
Call any hour and ask for a Spanish speaking attorney and you will get one.
The deadline on your claim is running right now. The winch that hurt you is getting repaired. The crew that saw it happen is rotating out next hitch. The company already has lawyers and adjusters working on this and they started the same day you got hurt.
You should have someone doing the same for you. A Houston maritime attorney at our firm can tell you in one phone call which law covers your injury and what your deadline actually is and what the next 30 days should look like. That call costs you nothing and it does not obligate you to hire anybody.
Call (956) 968-7800 for a free consultation. Available 24/7. Hablamos español.
You can also send us your details through our free consultation form or reach us on live chat or WhatsApp any hour of the day.
No fee unless we win. Free case review. English and Spanish. Available every day.
(956) 968-7800 Free Case Review Hablamos español
