On the sea, a life jacket can save your life. In the courtroom, the life jacket that can save your case is provable and relevant facts. Seaman, Frank Glaze, recently found this to be true when a Louisiana Court dismissed his Jones Act personal injury case due to a lack…
Evidence in a trial can take almost any shape or form. For murder trials, people think of weapons. For fraud cases, perhaps incriminating documents comes to mind. For a personal injury case, the options are almost limitless yet likely “flip flop” is not the first image that pops up; especially…
It’s a common scenario: someone is injured or property is damaged because another party failed to use reasonable care. This situation is far from rare in the legal profession, and the responsible party is usually held accountable for their negligence with civil lawsuits. But what happens when the injured person…
Being an employee aboard a ship in the Gulf of Mexico can be hard work, and it can also be dangerous work. For Mark Baldwin, who worked as a sandblaster and painter for Cleanblast, LLC, danger presented itself when he was assigned to the vessel Brody Paul and serviced oil…
While many of us think of pirates as something that only exist on television or in the movies they do still exist throughout the world. While they no longer sack and plunder ships for gold they do cause great havoc by kidnapping ships and invading oil rigs off the coast…
Not all Workers Compensation insurance claim decisions are black and white. Sometimes those claims can include an overlap with other federal statutes that may or may not also provide coverage. When those circumstances arise insurers need to base their decisions on the facts and the law and not for financial gain.…
Servicing drilling platforms is big business in the Gulf of Mexico. To transport pipes and other supplies out to the oil platforms ships or large vessels are often used. Unfortunately not all vessels are in “shipshape” as a recent case out of the Eastern District of Louisiana shows. On May 28,…
It seems an insurance company’s first response to a claim is to deny the claim. The Louisiana Workers’ Compensation Corporation (“LWCC”) is no exception. The following case out of Loreauville Louisiana demonstrates the arguments that can be made and standards to assess whether an injured employee is due LWCC’s benefits or…
If you are injured during the course of your employment, you may have a cause of action against your employer for your injury. But beware of time limitations. Even if you have a solid cause of action, you must be careful to ensure that you file your claim before the…
Contract interpretation can be tough, but having a competent attorney review documents before you sign them goes a long way in avoiding surprises further down the line. This is important because the words that are not there are often just as important as the words that are, a lesson learned…