Pascagoula Maritime Injury Lawyer

The TV lawyer on the billboard does not know what Section 905(b) is. He does not know that a Pascagoula shipyard worker or dock worker who is injured due to the negligence of a vessel owner has a separate federal negligence claim that runs parallel to the LHWCA workers’ compensation claim. He does not know that these two claims can be pursued simultaneously. He does not know the specific negligence duties vessel owners owe to longshore workers under the law developed by the Supreme Court after the 1972 amendments to the LHWCA. He has never tried one of these cases. And that ignorance costs the Pascagoula maritime injury victim every dollar of tort recovery that the billboard lawyer leaves on the table by never finding the claim in the first place.

What Section 905(b) Actually Is And Why It Matters For Pascagoula Workers

The Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act is a workers’ compensation statute. It provides no-fault benefits — medical care and wage replacement — without requiring the injured worker to prove anyone was negligent. That is the LHWCA claim against the employer and the carrier. It is the foundation of every longshore case.

But when the injury occurs on or involves a vessel, and the vessel owner’s negligence contributed to the injury, the 1972 amendments to the LHWCA preserved a separate negligence claim against the vessel owner under 33 U.S.C. Section 905(b). This is not a workers’ compensation claim. It is a federal maritime tort claim. It requires proving negligence. It can produce a recovery that includes pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, and other damages that the LHWCA workers’ compensation system does not compensate. The 905(b) claim and the LHWCA claim run simultaneously. One does not eliminate the other, though the LHWCA carrier has a subrogation right in the 905(b) recovery that has to be managed correctly.

For Ingalls workers who are injured while working on a vessel under construction or repair, and for dock workers and port workers who are injured by vessel conditions or vessel crew negligence, the 905(b) claim is the path to full tort recovery. The TV lawyer who has never handled an LHWCA claim has certainly never identified or pursued a 905(b) claim. That claim simply does not exist in his universe. When he settles the LHWCA claim for the carrier’s first offer, he is not just leaving LHWCA money on the table. He may be leaving the entire 905(b) tort recovery behind as well.

What Vessel Owner Negligence Looks Like In A Pascagoula Maritime Injury Case

The Supreme Court defined the vessel owner’s negligence duties to longshore workers in a series of decisions following the 1972 amendments. The vessel owner owes longshore workers a duty to exercise reasonable care with respect to the vessel’s condition and operations under the vessel owner’s control. That duty encompasses three recognized categories: the turnover duty (the vessel must be in a reasonably safe condition when turned over to the stevedore or contractor), the active operations duty (the vessel owner must exercise reasonable care in vessel operations that occur concurrently with the longshore work), and the duty to intervene (when the vessel owner knows of an unreasonably dangerous condition created by the stevedore, the vessel owner must take reasonable steps to protect the longshore workers).

In practical terms at Pascagoula, a 905(b) claim might arise when an Ingalls worker is injured by a defective condition on a vessel under repair that the vessel owner knew about and failed to correct before work began. It might arise when a naval vessel’s crew creates a dangerous condition during the repair process and a shipyard worker is hurt. It might arise at the Port of Pascagoula when a vessel’s cargo handling equipment fails due to the vessel owner’s inadequate maintenance and a dock worker is struck. Each of those scenarios involves vessel owner negligence that is separate from the employer’s no-fault workers’ compensation liability — and each represents potential tort recovery that the LHWCA alone cannot provide.

As a Pascagoula longshore lawyer who has handled both LHWCA claims and 905(b) vessel negligence claims, identifying whether a 905(b) claim exists alongside the workers’ compensation claim is part of the initial case evaluation. The TV lawyer skips that step because he does not know the step exists.

How The 905(b) Claim And The LHWCA Claim Interact

Running a 905(b) claim alongside an LHWCA claim requires managing the interaction between the two recoveries carefully. The LHWCA carrier that has been paying your medical expenses and wage replacement has a statutory lien on any 905(b) recovery under 33 U.S.C. Section 933. That lien must be accounted for in any settlement of the 905(b) claim. Depending on the amounts involved, there may be significant room to negotiate the carrier’s lien reduction in a way that maximizes what the worker actually takes home.

The 905(b) claim is litigated in federal district court under maritime law, not before an Administrative Law Judge in the LHWCA system. The procedural posture, the discovery rules, and the damages framework are different from the ALJ hearing process. A lawyer who handles only one system or the other is not equipped to manage both simultaneously. The cases need to be coordinated from the beginning to avoid procedural missteps that damage one claim while advancing the other.

The deadline question also differs between the two claims. The LHWCA has its two-year statute of limitations under 33 U.S.C. Section 913, which is explained in detail on the Pascagoula longshore claim deadline page. The 905(b) maritime tort claim is subject to the three-year maritime statute of limitations under 46 U.S.C. Section 30106. The two clocks run independently. Missing the shorter LHWCA deadline while the 905(b) claim is still timely does not save you — it just means you have lost the workers’ compensation claim and retained only the tort claim, which may or may not be sufficient depending on the facts.

Before you call anyone about a Pascagoula maritime injury, get the free book at the bottom of this page. It covers the carrier’s playbook and what you need to protect before you ever hire a lawyer. And make sure the lawyer you hire knows what Section 905(b) is — because the TV lawyer does not.

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