Lucedale Longshore Lawyer: Ingalls And Mobile Workers

Radio spots from the TV lawyer crackle all the way from Lucedale to Moss Point, yet he has never once entered a federal longshore hearing room. That TV lawyer has never filed a federal claim in his life. A Lucedale longshore lawyer who has actually done it is a different animal entirely. Mention the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act to him and he draws a blank. Not once has he lodged a claim with the U.S. Department of Labor. Nobody wearing a robe as an Administrative Law Judge in the district at New Orleans has seen him argue a thing. What he does well is pick up a 1-800 line, sign you to a contract and pass your folder to a secretary. He does not know the federal system that governs your claim, and neither does his secretary. But the carrier’s adjuster does. That gap is money out of your pocket from day one.

George County workers drive to Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula every morning. They drive to Bollinger Mississippi Shipbuilding on Bayou Casotte. Some cross into Alabama and work at the Port of Mobile, at shipyards along the Mobile River, and at the Gulf Coast waterfront operations that run from Chickasaw to Theodore. Whether the job is in Pascagoula, Mobile, or anywhere on navigable water in between, if you are doing maritime work at a covered situs you are in the federal longshore system. George County does not govern your claim. The Mississippi Workers Compensation Commission does not govern your claim. A federal judge in Covington, Louisiana does.

On your file and on the phone, the name you get is Jay Foster. The Mississippi Gulf Coast has been my place of work as a lawyer for decades. The Covington district is territory I know well. I know the Administrative Law Judges who hear these cases. I know the carriers who defend them. I am the only lawyer anywhere in Mississippi who guarantees, in writing and before we start, that the money landing in your hands is more than the fee I take. Nobody else makes that promise. Every case. No exceptions.

A Lucedale Longshore Lawyer Knows Every George County Worker Who Drives To Ingalls Each Morning

Huntington Ingalls Industries employs more than eleven thousand people at its Ingalls Shipbuilding facility in Pascagoula. It is the largest manufacturing employer in Mississippi. The workers who build destroyers, amphibious assault ships, and Coast Guard cutters at that yard come from across the region, and a significant number of them live in George County. Highway 63 south from Lucedale. Highway 26 from Benndale to Moss Point. These are the roads that connect George County to the federal system that governs what happens when a shipyard worker gets hurt.

Bollinger Mississippi Shipbuilding handles both defense and commercial vessel construction on Bayou Casotte. The workers there are covered under the same federal law. The carriers defending those claims have been in the Covington hearing room hundreds of times. They know which lawyers have been there too and which ones are pretending. Once a lawyer with no history of trying these federal cases signs onto your file, the insurance company’s attitude toward your claim changes at once and for the worse. The number they decide to offer changes. The pressure they decide to apply changes. The outcome changes. Because they know nobody is coming to that hearing.

What A Lucedale Longshore Lawyer Handles For Workers At The Port Of Mobile

The Port of Mobile is one of the busiest ports on the Gulf Coast. Workers from George County cross into Alabama every day to work at the port, at the shipyards along the Mobile River, and at the marine industrial facilities that stretch from Chickasaw through Theodore. The Alabama State Docks. BAE Systems Ship Repair in Mobile. Signal International at the Theodore Industrial Park. These are covered employers under the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act.

The LHWCA applies regardless of which state the injury occurred in. A George County worker hurt at the Port of Mobile has a federal longshore claim, not an Alabama workers’ compensation claim. A George County worker hurt at a Mobile shipyard doing covered maritime work has a federal longshore claim. Paperwork for this claim goes to the U.S. Department of Labor, and the hearing itself is held in the New Orleans district. Alabama law does not govern it. Mississippi law does not govern it. The governing law is federal, and the defense team across the table knows that law inside and out.

Most George County workers who get hurt at a Mobile employer never learn that the LHWCA might apply to their injury. They call a lawyer in Alabama, file an Alabama workers’ compensation claim, and settle for whatever the Alabama system produces. Alabama workers’ comp has different benefit levels, different medical rules, and a different procedural structure than the LHWCA. In many cases the federal benefits are significantly better. Workers who never think to ask end up with an Alabama result even though a federal remedy was sitting there waiting the whole time, unused.

The Carrier Has Been Building Its File Since The Morning You Got Hurt

Your name goes on a fresh file at the insurance company the instant the incident report lands in its system. His desk has seen hundreds of LHWCA claims pass over it. He knows the deadlines. He knows the benefit formula. He knows the medical arguments that minimize permanent impairment ratings. He has a list of physicians whose reports consistently serve the carrier’s financial interest. He has a recorded statement request ready. Before he even opens your folder, he already knows whether your lawyer has ever set foot inside that Covington hearing room in his career.

That assessment drives everything. The carrier’s offer. The carrier’s posture. The carrier’s willingness to fight or settle. Not one piece of it measures the value of your claim under federal law. It measures how much the insurance company believes it can pocket, judged by the lawyer standing on your side of the file.

When I am on your side of that file, the calculation changes. The carrier knows I have been in that hearing room. They know the threat is real. Their whole attitude toward your claim changes at that point, and the change is worth more than most injured workers ever realize. It only comes when the lawyer on your side has really tried these cases in front of a judge.

Five Things That Kill George County Longshore Claims Before They Start

The first is giving the carrier a recorded statement before talking to a lawyer. The adjuster will call it routine. It is not routine for you. At a federal hearing, anything you say in that statement is fair game for the other side. You are not required to give it. Hold it back until you have found a lawyer who has actually been inside that hearing room.

Mistake number two is never finding out if the LHWCA covers you in the first place. Workers at covered maritime employers doing covered work on navigable waters or adjoining areas are in the federal system. Workers at the same employer doing land-based support work may be in state workers’ compensation instead. A wrong turn here on day one is the sort of error that sometimes cannot be undone later. Ask the question before you file anything.

The third is letting the carrier pick your doctors without understanding your rights. The carrier has the right to direct your initial treatment under the LHWCA. That does not mean their doctor is your doctor. You have rights regarding your own physician. When and how you assert those rights is a strategy call, and it decides what goes into the medical record that holds up your whole claim. A wrong move here costs you for the life of the claim.

The fourth is hiring a lawyer who cannot go to the hearing. Put this question to any lawyer you interview, face to face. Have you personally stood before a federal Administrative Law Judge, in a New Orleans district hearing held by the U.S. Department of Labor in a case that turns on the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act? Settle for nothing less than a straight yes backed by details. A dodge is a no.

The fifth is waiting. Your employer must be told within thirty days under the LHWCA, and the statute of limitations for most claims is one year. It runs from the day of injury, or from the day the work-related nature of the injury was known or should have been known to you. An occupational disease gets two years. Evidence disappears fast. The carrier’s file builds itself every day without any effort on their part. Yours requires active work starting now.

The Foster Fair Fee Guarantee

I am the only lawyer on the Gulf Coast who puts this in your contract and means it: you will put more money in your pocket than I put in mine. Every case. No exceptions. That is the Foster Fair Fee Guarantee, in writing on day one. The TV lawyer will not match it because his business model does not allow it. When your recovery has to exceed my fee on every case I take, I have a contractual reason to fight for the maximum the law allows. That is a different alignment of interests than anything the settlement mill offers.

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The $5,000 Double Dare No TV Lawyer Has Ever Collected

I will pay you $2,500 cash if the TV lawyer whose face is on the billboard personally handles your longshore case from the first call to the final check. Every phone call. Every hearing appearance. Every filing. Personally. I will pay you another $2,500 if that same TV lawyer personally argues your case in front of a federal Administrative Law Judge in the New Orleans district of the U.S. Department of Labor.

Nobody has ever collected. Because it never happens. The carrier’s team knows it. That is why every file that comes in from a TV firm gets a lowball number from day one.

P.S. For years the insurance company on your claim has been working longshore cases inside this federal system. The TV lawyer whose number you are about to dial has handled none. The free book is where the comparison starts.

P.P.S. The Foster Fair Fee Guarantee is in your contract in writing on day one. You put more money in your pocket than I do. Every case. No exceptions.