Offshore Injury Lawyer Baytown, TX
If you’ve been hurt working offshore in the Gulf, our team is here to help. Offshore claims are governed by an overlapping mix of federal statutes, federal regulations, and state law, and which framework applies depends on where the event occurred, the type of structure you were on, and what your job looked like that day. Employers, platform operators, and vessel owner insurers already know those rules. They also know that evidence on a rig, a platform, or a crew boat disappears quickly once the internal investigation closes.
At Greenberg Streich Injury Lawyers, we’ve handled offshore, maritime, and oilfield injury cases across Texas and Gulf-state waters for more than a decade, including a $16 million Jones Act traumatic brain injury settlement and a $20 million oilfield burn settlement. We represent injured workers and their families, not platform operators, vessel owners, or their insurance carriers. Every case is on contingency. No retainer, no hourly billing, no fee unless we recover.
If you need a Baytown, TX offshore injury lawyer, contact us today.
Why Choose Greenberg Streich Injury Lawyers for Offshore Injuries in Baytown, TX?
Trial Experience in Offshore and Maritime Cases
Co-founder Matt Greenberg has practiced personal injury law in Baytown, TX for over a decade, and has served as lead trial counsel in cases that produced record-setting verdicts and settlements in catastrophic injury and death matters across Texas. He earned his J.D. at Baylor Law School and has been recognized by Super Lawyers, Lawdragon, and the National Trial Lawyers.
Mike Streich has handled offshore and maritime injury cases for 13 years. He graduated cum laude from the Houston Law Center and is a member of the Texas Trial Lawyers Association. Before moving to the plaintiff side, Mike spent close to a decade defending corporations and insurance syndicates, including members of Lloyd’s of London, in catastrophic injury and death claims tied to pipeline, refinery, commercial vehicle, and offshore operations. That background shapes how he prepares offshore files against similar defendants today.
Results That Matter to Offshore Workers
Our attorneys have recovered over $375 million for clients across Texas. In the offshore, maritime, and oilfield space, those outcomes include the $16 million Jones Act traumatic brain injury settlement and the $3.53 million towboat capsize matter referenced above, alongside a $20 million oilfield burn settlement, a $12.7 million oilfield settlement, and a $7.5 million settlement for the parents of a worker killed in an Oklahoma rig accident.
Contingency Fee Representation
Offshore workers recovering from a serious injury should not be paying retainer checks while they are still in the hospital. Our firm advances investigation costs, accident reconstruction, vessel and platform analysis, and regulatory record retrieval, and our attorney fees are paid only out of the recovery if we win.
Client Feedback
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “I’ve known Matt Greenberg for many years, and he’s exactly the person you want as your attorney. He’s smart, he cares, and he’ll put in the work for you every single time. I’ve watched him handle tough cases and come out with great results because he genuinely cares about the people he’s helping. You’re in excellent hands with him at the helm, and I’d recommend him to anyone.”
Jason Biddle
Read more reviews on our Google Business Profile.
Types of Offshore Injury Cases We Handle in Baytown
The Gulf of Mexico supports a significant share of the United States’ offshore workforce, and many of those workers live in Baytown and the surrounding Ship Channel communities. Our firm handles the most serious categories of offshore cases, including events that trigger one or more of the federal statutes below.
- Fixed platform and jackup rig injuries. Workers injured on fixed platforms or jackup rigs on the Outer Continental Shelf fall within a framework that borrows state law through federal statute. Common incidents include dropped pipe, line-handling failures, equipment strikes, and falls.
- Crew boat and supply vessel injuries. Deckhands, mates, and captains on crew boats and supply vessels moving between shore and platform are typically “seamen” under the federal Jones Act, which governs their negligence claims alongside general maritime injury remedies.
- Platform construction and decommissioning. New build, turnaround, and abandonment work introduces hazards comparable to construction site operations, with added jurisdictional questions.
- Diving and underwater incidents. Commercial diving operations around platforms, pipelines, and wellheads produce some of the most catastrophic injuries in the industry.
- Explosion accidents. Wellhead blowouts, process-unit fires, and gas releases can result in catastrophic explosions that cause severe injuries, including burn injuries.
- Chemical exposure and toxic release. Exposure to hydrogen sulfide, drilling fluid, and treatment chemicals can cause acute and chronic injuries. Many of these matters overlap with refinery accident claims when the worker rotates between offshore and shore-based assignments.
- Hoisting, crane, and swing rope incidents. Personnel transfers between vessels and platforms, crane operations, and boat-to-boat transfers are among the highest-risk activities offshore.
- Oilfield accidents. Offshore workers rotating to upstream onshore assignments may suffer severe, often disabling, injuries due to a variety of causes.
- Boating accidents. Injuries sustained in vessel and small-boat incidents, like capsizing, flooding, and collision, related to offshore work.
- Traumatic brain injuries. Head strikes on low clearances, pipe drops, and blast overpressure can cause traumatic brain injury that shapes the entire damages picture.
- Fatal offshore incidents. When an offshore worker dies on the job, surviving spouses, children, and parents may pursue wrongful death claims under federal and Texas law. Employer overlap also shows up when the injured worker’s company had a shore-based workplace injury policy in place.
Texas Legal Requirements for Offshore Injury Claims
Offshore injury claims sit at the intersection of three federal statutes and Texas state law. The particular combination depends on where the event occurred and what the worker was doing.
The Jones Act. Under 46 U.S.C. § 30104, a seaman injured in the course of employment may bring a civil action against the employer and is entitled to a jury trial. Jones Act coverage is limited to “seamen,” a federal term of art that turns on the worker’s connection to a vessel in navigation. Most deckhands, engineers, captains, and permanent vessel crew qualify.
Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act. Under 43 U.S.C. § 1333 of OCSLA, workers injured on fixed platforms or other artificial islands on the Outer Continental Shelf are generally covered by the law of the adjacent state as surrogate federal law. For Gulf platforms off Texas, that typically means Texas personal injury law applies to the underlying negligence claim, along with any federal overlay.
Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act. Non-seaman maritime workers who do not qualify for Jones Act coverage, including many dockside and platform workers, may be covered by LHWCA, administered by the U.S. Department of Labor. LHWCA provides a no-fault benefit system along with potential third-party claims against parties other than the direct employer.
Statute of limitations. Maritime personal injury claims generally must be filed within three years under 46 U.S.C. § 30106. OCSLA claims borrow the adjacent state’s statute of limitations, which in Texas is two years under CPRC § 16.003. The steps taken after a serious accident often determine how strong the case becomes.
Federal offshore safety regulation. The federal offshore safety regulator, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE), oversees oil and gas operations on the Outer Continental Shelf, including process safety, well control, and incident reporting. BSEE incident records, Notices to Lessees, and investigation reports are often central to offshore litigation.
Unseaworthiness and maintenance and cure. For Jones Act seamen, general maritime law imposes an absolute and non-delegable duty of seaworthiness and provides maintenance and cure regardless of fault. These remedies typically run alongside a Jones Act negligence claim.
What Damages Are Recoverable in a Baytown Offshore Injury Case?
The available damages depend on which statute governs the claim. Offshore injured workers and their families may pursue several overlapping categories.
Economic damages. These include past and future medical expenses, rehabilitation, assistive devices, lost wages, lost earning capacity, and, in fatal cases, funeral costs. Jones Act seamen are also entitled to maintenance and cure, paid separately from other damages. OCSLA claims include the same categories of medical, wage, and replacement-cost losses available in state personal injury cases. Offshore careers are hard to replace, and we routinely retain a forensic economist and a vocational analyst, especially for workers whose Coast Guard credentials or platform certifications are effectively ended by the injury.
Non-economic damages. Recovery for physical pain, mental anguish, disfigurement, physical impairment, and loss of enjoyment of life is available across all three frameworks, though the specific categories and calculation methods differ. In fatal cases, federal and state statutes interact to define what surviving spouses, children, and parents may recover.
Exemplary (punitive) damages. Punitive damages are generally not recoverable on a Jones Act negligence claim itself, but the Supreme Court has held they may be available for willful and wanton disregard of the duty to provide maintenance and cure under general maritime law. Texas exemplary damages rules under CPRC Chapter 41 require clear and convincing evidence of gross negligence, fraud, or malice. According to BLS fatal injury data, oil and gas extraction work has long ranked among the most dangerous occupations in the United States.
If the injury involves a third-party vessel, contractor, or equipment manufacturer, additional sources of coverage often apply beyond the immediate employer’s insurance.
Contact Greenberg Streich Injury Lawyers
A serious offshore injury can end a career that was built over years on the water or on the rigs, and offshore law is not something to navigate alone. You deserve a firm that takes the case as seriously as you do. Our attorneys will listen carefully, review the evidence, and give you an honest assessment of your options, including whether a lawsuit is the right next step.
Consultations with the legal team at Greenberg Streich Injury Lawyers are free. You pay nothing unless we recover money for you. We respond to calls and form submissions promptly, and we can meet in person, by phone, or by video, whichever works best for you.
Contact us today to speak with an offshore injury lawyer about what happened and what comes next.
