Were you injured working aboard a vessel in Brownsville, TX?
At Greenberg Streich Injury Lawyers, we provide Jones Act representation on a contingency basis, and there are no attorney fees unless we recover compensation for you.
If you were hurt while working as a crew member, an attorney can bring a claim against your employer that ordinary workers’ compensation would never allow. Our Brownsville, TX Jones Act lawyer represents deckhands, engineers, tankermen, and dredge crews working out of the Port of Brownsville and the surrounding Gulf waters.
Greenberg Streich Injury Lawyers takes these cases on contingency, which means you owe nothing unless there is a recovery. Request a free case review to learn where your claim stands.
Jones Act Lawyer Brownsville, TX
A Jones Act lawyer represents seamen who are hurt or killed doing their jobs. The Jones Act gives an injured crew member the right to sue the employer directly for negligence and to have that case heard by a jury. That is a fundamentally different remedy from the no-fault benefit systems that cover most land-based workers, and it puts the employer’s conduct squarely at issue.
Transportation and material moving occupations make up 7.3 percent of employment in the Brownsville area and average $18.67 an hour, compared with $23.96 nationally, according to BLS wage data. Licensed mariners and offshore crew commonly earn well above that local figure. When a defense economist anchors a lost-earnings analysis to area averages instead of a mariner’s actual pay history, the resulting number is far too low.
Types of Jones Act Cases We Handle in Brownsville
Seaman status is the threshold requirement for a Jones Act claim, and it reaches a wider range of work than most people expect. Crew on tugs, barges, dredges, supply boats, and shrimping vessels can all qualify. The claims that follow generally fall into several categories.
- Line-handling injuries. Mooring work produces some of the worst injuries on the water, including crush injuries and amputations when a line parts under load. We look at the vessel’s own safety procedures before we look at the crew member’s conduct.
- Engine room injuries. Burns, hearing loss, and caught-in injuries happen in spaces that are hot, loud, and cramped by design. Guarding, lockout procedures, and maintenance history matter here, and OSHA maritime guidance is often useful in showing what a reasonable operator should have done.
- Unseaworthiness claims. A vessel owner has an independent duty to furnish gear, crew, and working spaces that are reasonably fit for their purpose. A frayed cable, an undermanned watch, or a defective winch can support this claim even when nobody acted carelessly on the day of the injury.
- Maintenance and cure disputes. Regardless of who caused the injury, the employer must cover a seaman’s basic upkeep and medical care until the condition stops improving. Employers cut these payments off early more often than they should, and an unreasonable termination carries consequences of its own.
- Explosion accidents. Fuel and vapor ignition aboard vessels causes burns that require years of reconstructive care. Physical evidence disappears quickly once a vessel returns to service.
- Refinery accidents. Tankermen and crew are injured during cargo transfers at the port’s liquid terminals, where responsibility can sit with the vessel, the facility, or both. Determining that early establishes which companies belong in the case.
- Workplace injuries. Crew members are frequently hurt ashore during yard periods and repair work. Whether the Jones Act still applies depends on the worker’s assignment at that moment.
- Maritime injuries. Dockworkers, riggers, and shipyard employees who do not meet the seaman definition have different remedies available. Confirming which category a worker falls into is the first step in evaluating a claim.
- Seaman wrongful death. Families of crew members lost at sea face both a federal claim and an employer that has already begun its own investigation. What is recoverable depends on where the death occurred.
Why Choose Greenberg Streich Injury Lawyers as my Jones Act Lawyer in Brownsville, TX?
Vessel Cases Are a Core Part of Our Practice
Mike Streich has handled Jones Act and offshore injury matters for fourteen years, and Super Lawyers lists Transportation and Maritime among his practice areas. He graduated cum laude from the University of Houston Law Center, where he competed on the mock trial team, and he is admitted in every Texas state and federal court. Matt Greenberg has worked on maritime and offshore claims for twelve years and has served as lead trial counsel in matters resolving hundreds of millions of dollars for clients.
What Our Attorneys Have Recovered in Vessel Injury Cases
Our attorneys have recovered more than $300 million for injured people and their families, including these maritime results:
- $16,000,000 for a Jones Act seaman who suffered head and neck injuries offshore
- $1,875,000 for a crew member injured aboard a vessel
- $950,000 in a maritime injury claim
Results in that range come from preserving evidence before it is lost and preparing the file as though a jury will decide it. That is the standard of preparation you should expect from a personal injury lawyer in Brownsville, TX.
Understanding Jones Act Cases
Damages, Liability, and Compensation for Jones Act Cases
Three separate theories usually run side by side in a crew member’s case: employer negligence under the Jones Act, unseaworthiness of the vessel, and maintenance and cure. They have different proof requirements and different measures of recovery, and a well-built case pleads all three.
The negligence standard is more forgiving to the worker than the one used in a state court injury case. A seaman recovers if the employer’s negligence contributed in any degree to the injury. Contributory negligence by the crew member does not bar the claim either, though it reduces the award in proportion to the fault assigned.
Recoverable losses typically include:
- Past and future medical care, including surgery and long-term rehabilitation
- Lost wages, overtime, and the earning capacity a career at sea would have produced
- The value of room and board the vessel would have provided, known in maritime cases as found
- Pain, mental anguish, and disability
- Losses to surviving family members in wrongful death cases
What Are Important Aspects of a Jones Act Case?
The employer usually controls the evidence, the witnesses, and often the first medical opinion. That imbalance is why early decisions carry so much weight. The steps taken in the first week, from a written injury report to declining a recorded statement, do more to protect your case than anything that happens a year later.
- Seaman status, which the employer will contest if the connection to a vessel is arguable
- The written accident report, and whether its wording matches what actually happened
- Vessel logs, work schedules, and crew rotations from the days around the injury
- Whether the company sent you to its own physician instead of your choice of doctor
- Prior complaints about the same equipment or the same short-handed watch
What Is The Jones Act Case Timeline?
Maritime cases move on the vessel’s schedule as much as the court’s, since crew witnesses scatter between hitches and vessels leave the district. Federal law sets the outer limit at three years from the date a claim accrues. Waiting anywhere near that long costs a case evidence it cannot get back.
- Preservation demands to the employer and the vessel owner, sent immediately
- Locating and interviewing crew before they transfer or leave the company
- Treatment and, where the injury is permanent, a life care plan
- Suit in federal or state court, followed by discovery and crew depositions
- Mediation, with trial preparation continuing in parallel
What Should You Bring to Your Jones Act Consultation?
Sea service and pay records do most of the work in these cases, and we can obtain them if you cannot. Anything on this list that you already have is worth bringing:
- Your certificate of discharge, sea service letters, or vessel assignment records
- The injury report you signed, if you were given a copy
- Pay records showing base wage, overtime, and any bonus structure
- Photographs of the equipment, deck, or space where the injury happened
- Any correspondence about maintenance and cure payments
We will explain whether you likely qualify as a seaman, which claims fit your facts, and what a realistic range of outcomes looks like.
Most Dangerous Locations for Jones Act Injuries in Brownsville, TX
Crew injuries here concentrate in a few predictable work areas rather than on any particular stretch of water.
- Mooring and line-handling stations. Snapback zones during docking and undocking, where a parted line travels faster than anyone can move.
- Engine rooms and machinery spaces. Confined, hot compartments aboard tugs and supply vessels, with rotating equipment at close quarters.
- Barge decks and fleeting areas. Crossing between rafted barges, often without fall protection or adequate footing.
- Dredging operations on the channel deepening project. Cable and spud handling aboard dredges working the Brazos Island Harbor improvements.
- Gangways and accommodation ladders. Boarding and departing at the port’s cargo berths, particularly at night or in weather.
Reach Out to Greenberg Streich Injury Lawyers to Schedule a Consultation
The consultation costs nothing, and our fee comes only from a recovery. We will walk through what happened aboard the vessel, explain which claims apply, and tell you plainly whether the claim is worth pursuing. Our Brownsville Jones Act attorney is available by phone or in person, and new inquiries usually get a same-day or next-day response. Contact us to put a time on the calendar.
