Jones Act and Offshore Injury Claims: Which Law Covers You

Maritime and offshore injuries · Federal law

By Pablo Hernández · not a lawyer · Last checked against the sources: October 17, 2026

On land, an injured employee usually gets workers’ compensation and cannot sue the employer. At sea, the rules are older and different. A deckhand on a supply boat and a welder on a fixed platform a few hundred yards away can be covered by different federal laws, with different deadlines and very different amounts at stake.

This guide explains how to tell which law covers you, what each one pays, and the deadlines. Each rule links to the statute or the Supreme Court decision. Last checked: October 17, 2026.

Which law covers you

Work through these questions in order. The first “yes” usually decides it.

The boundaries are fought over in court all the time, and the answer can change the value of a claim several times over. Treat this as a starting point, not a verdict.

Who counts as a seaman

The Jones Act does not define “seaman”. The Supreme Court did, in Chandris, Inc. v. Latsis (1995). A seaman must meet two tests:

• The job contributes to the vessel’s function or mission. Captains and deckhands, but also cooks, engineers, and rig hands on a floating drilling unit.
• The worker has a connection to a vessel, or an identifiable fleet of vessels, that is substantial in duration and in nature. The Court gave a rule of thumb: a worker who spends less than about 30 percent of their time in the service of a vessel in navigation should not qualify.

The 30% figure is a guideline, not a law. Courts look at the whole job, not one voyage. A worker who is reassigned to a vessel permanently can become a seaman on the first day of the new job.

Some workers are excluded by statute. Aquaculture workers are not seamen for Jones Act purposes when state workers’ compensation is available to them and they were injured where they had lawful access (46 U.S.C. § 30104(b)).

The three claims a seaman can bring

1. Jones Act negligence (against the employer)

The Jones Act lets a seaman injured on the job sue the employer, with a jury trial. It adopts the law that governs injured railroad workers, the Federal Employers’ Liability Act. Two consequences matter:

• The employer is liable if its negligence caused the injury “in whole or in part” (45 U.S.C. § 51). Courts treat this as an easier standard of proof than in an ordinary injury case.
• The seaman’s own carelessness does not bar the claim. It reduces damages “in proportion to the amount of negligence attributable to” the worker (45 U.S.C. § 53). This is pure comparative fault. There is one exception: if the employer violated a safety statute that contributed to the injury, the worker’s share of fault does not reduce the award at all. Compare the state fault rules, where a worker found 51% at fault could get nothing in many states.

2. Unseaworthiness (against the vessel owner)

A vessel owner must provide a vessel, equipment and crew reasonably fit for their intended use. A slippery deck, a frayed line, a missing guard or an undermanned crew can make a vessel unseaworthy. The owner does not have to have been careless: the condition is enough, if it caused the injury.

Punitive damages are not available on this claim. The Supreme Court decided that in Dutra Group v. Batterton (2019).

3. Maintenance and cure (no fault needed)

A seaman who becomes injured or ill while in the service of the vessel is entitled to maintenance (a daily amount for food and lodging while recovering ashore) and cure (medical care). The employer owes them whether or not anyone was at fault.

• They last until the seaman reaches “maximum cure”, the point where more treatment will not improve the condition.
• The daily rate is often set in a union contract or proven from the seaman’s actual living costs. It is not a wage.
• An employer that willfully refuses to pay can owe punitive damages, as the Supreme Court held in Atlantic Sounding Co. v. Townsend (2009).

Longshore, harbor and platform workers

The Longshore Act covers workers in “maritime employment” injured on navigable waters or on an adjoining pier, dock, terminal or shipyard area. Its definition of employee expressly excludes “a master or member of a crew of any vessel” (33 U.S.C. § 902(3)(G)), so a worker is either a seaman or a Longshore worker, not both.

• No-fault benefits. Medical care, plus compensation for disability: 66⅔% of the average weekly wage for total disability (33 U.S.C. § 908), within a maximum of twice the national average weekly wage (§ 906(b)).
• No suit against the employer. As with state workers’ comp, the benefits replace a negligence suit against your own employer.
• A suit against the vessel is still possible. If a vessel’s negligence caused the injury, the worker can sue the vessel as a third party (33 U.S.C. § 905(b)).

For oil and gas workers on the outer Continental Shelf, the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (43 U.S.C. § 1333(b)) extends the same Longshore Act benefits. Crew members of vessels are excluded from that extension too.

Seaman vs. Longshore worker, side by side

Deadlines

• Seamen: a civil action for personal injury or death from a maritime tort “must be brought within 3 years after the cause of action arose” (46 U.S.C. § 30106). This federal deadline applies wherever you live, instead of the state deadlines.
• Longshore Act: written notice of the injury within 30 days, to the Labor Department’s district director and to the employer (33 U.S.C. § 912), and a claim within one year after the injury, or one year after the last voluntary payment (33 U.S.C. § 913). Both clocks start later if the worker did not know the injury was work-related.

Deaths at sea

If a seaman dies from a work injury, the personal representative can bring the Jones Act claim on behalf of the family. For a death on the high seas more than 3 nautical miles from the U.S. shore, the Death on the High Seas Act applies: the personal representative sues for the benefit of the spouse, parent, child or dependent relative. Recovery is limited to “pecuniary loss”, meaning financial support and services, not grief (§ 30303). Deaths in commercial aviation accidents more than 12 nautical miles out are an exception: there, damages for loss of care, comfort and companionship can also be recovered (§ 30307).

Questions

Related guides

• Truck accident liability and federal rules.
• Personal injury deadlines by state.
• How contingency fees work.

General information, not legal advice. Seaman status and coverage are decided case by case. Ask a licensed maritime attorney about your situation.