Pascagoula Longshore Claim Deadline

The TV lawyer on the billboard has never explained the LHWCA statute of limitations to an injured shipyard worker because he has never handled an LHWCA claim. He does not know the two-year deadline. He does not know how it runs differently for occupational diseases than for traumatic injuries. He does not know the discovery rule that determines when the clock starts for a painter who spent twenty years breathing welding fumes at Ingalls. He does not know any of that because he has never been in a federal longshore hearing. By the time you find out he did not know, the deadline may already be gone.

The Two Year Pascagoula Longshore Claim Deadline Under 33 U.S.C. Section 913

The Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act sets a two-year statute of limitations under 33 U.S.C. Section 913. For a traumatic injury, you have two years from the date of injury to file your claim with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs. Miss that window and you lose your right to benefits, permanently, regardless of how serious your injury is or how clearly your employer’s negligence caused it.

Two years sounds like a long time. It is not. Here is what happens to that two years. You get hurt. You report the injury. The carrier starts paying some benefits, so you assume things are moving. Months go by. The carrier’s benefits payments create the appearance that the claim is active and your rights are protected. They are not necessarily protected. Benefit payments alone do not toll the statute of limitations in all circumstances. You need a formal claim filed with the district office to fully protect your rights.

The TV lawyer who takes your case does not file the federal claim paperwork correctly or on time because he has never done it. He handles your case as if it is a state workers’ compensation matter. Eighteen months pass. The carrier cuts off benefits. You go to find out why and discover that the formal LHWCA claim was never properly filed. The two-year window is now closed or almost closed. That is not a hypothetical. That is what happens when injured Ingalls workers trust billboard lawyers with federal cases.

If you need a Pascagoula longshore lawyer who knows how to file the federal claim paperwork correctly from day one, the deadline issue is the first thing we address.

How The Deadline Runs Differently For Occupational Disease And Cumulative Trauma At Ingalls

The two-year deadline for occupational disease and cumulative trauma claims does not run from the day you first felt pain. Under 33 U.S.C. Section 913 and the case law interpreting it, the clock starts when the worker knew or reasonably should have known that the condition was related to employment.

For a painter at Ingalls who spent twenty years doing overhead spray work and developed a rotator cuff tear that finally required surgery, the clock does not start running when the shoulder first got sore five years into the job. It starts running when a physician told the worker the condition was work-related, or when the worker had enough information to make that connection himself.

For a welder who developed noise-induced hearing loss from decades of working in Ingalls shipyard production areas, the clock starts when an audiologist told him his hearing loss pattern was consistent with industrial noise exposure and connected it to his employment.

This distinction matters enormously. Many Ingalls workers with real occupational disease claims believe their deadline has passed because they have been living with symptoms for years. They are often wrong. The question is not when the symptoms started. The question is when you knew or should have known the symptoms were caused by your work. That analysis is fact-specific, it is not obvious, and getting it wrong costs you benefits you spent a career earning.

The coverage question also intersects with the deadline in ways that trap workers who get legal advice from lawyers who do not know the LHWCA. If your job at Ingalls puts you in the gray area between LHWCA coverage and Mississippi state workers’ compensation, and you spend eighteen months pursuing the wrong system, the correct system’s deadline has been running the entire time. That scenario is covered in detail on the Ingalls workers compensation vs longshore claim page. Getting the coverage question right at the start is not just about which benefits you receive. It is also about which deadline applies and whether you still have time to file.

What Tolls The Pascagoula Longshore Claim Deadline And What Does Not

Under 33 U.S.C. Section 913(d), the statute of limitations is tolled if the employer or carrier pays compensation voluntarily. The logic is that if the carrier is paying benefits, the worker has reason to believe the claim is acknowledged and proceeding. But tolling through voluntary payment is not automatic or unlimited. The payments must actually constitute compensation under the Act. Medical payments alone may not toll the statute in all circumstances. Partial payments, payments under dispute, and payments accompanied by reservation of rights language all create questions about whether tolling applies.

The carrier knows all of this. The carrier’s adjusters are trained to manage benefit payments in ways that give the appearance of cooperation while preserving every possible defense, including the limitations defense. If the formal claim is never filed with the district office during the two-year window, the carrier will raise the limitations defense the moment it becomes advantageous to do so.

Filing the formal claim under the LHWCA requires submitting Form LS-203 to the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs district office that covers Mississippi longshore claims. That filing, done correctly and on time, is what definitively stops the limitations clock. The TV lawyer who does not practice in the federal system does not know the form, does not know the filing procedure, and does not know the district office. That ignorance is not abstract. It has real consequences for real workers whose deadlines expire while their cases sit in a billboard lawyer’s queue.

Why Evidence Disappears While The Clock Runs

The two-year deadline is not just a legal technicality. It reflects a real-world truth about evidence. The longer you wait, the harder it is to prove your case.

Witnesses leave. An Ingalls coworker who saw the forklift accident in the drydock transfers to another facility six months later. A supervisor who knew about the repetitive motion demands of your trade retires and moves out of state. A safety inspector whose report documented the hazardous condition that caused your injury gets reassigned and cannot locate the report two years later. Every month that passes is a month that evidence becomes harder to obtain.

Surveillance footage gets overwritten. Ingalls and other Pascagoula employers maintain extensive surveillance systems. That footage is typically retained for thirty to ninety days before being overwritten. If your accident was captured on camera and you do not have a lawyer who knows to request preservation immediately, that evidence is gone before you understand you needed it.

Medical records become harder to obtain. Treating physicians close practices, retire, or change record systems. The occupational health clinic the carrier sent you to after the injury may not retain your records indefinitely. Building the medical record that proves your disability requires starting early. The permanent disability schedule that governs what your injury is worth under the LHWCA, and how the carrier fights your rating down, is covered in detail on the Mississippi longshore permanent disability schedule page. None of that matters if the deadline has expired.

Every day without experienced federal representation on your side is a day the carrier is building its case against you while yours stands still. The TV lawyer will tell you to wait and see how your recovery goes before deciding whether to pursue the case. The carrier is counting on exactly that advice.

Before you call anyone about your Pascagoula longshore claim, get the free book at the bottom of this page. It tells you exactly what the carrier is doing to your claim right now, what the real deadlines are, and what mistakes will permanently damage your case before you ever hire a lawyer.

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