Longshore Attorneys

Our workers' compensation attorneys are experienced in the litigation of Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act (LHWCA) claims before the United States Department of Labor, Division of Longshore and Harbor Workers. The United States Department of Labor recently announced, in 2020, that the Division of Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation (DLHWC) and the Division of Federal Employees’ Compensation (DFEC) were consolidated under the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs to form the Division of Federal Employees’, Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation (DFELHWC). Attorney Tim Nies represents both Longshoremen and contractors pursuant to the Defense Base Act, which was extended by the Longshore Act. 

This Law provides for payment of compensation for disability, or death, of a longshoremen, harbor worker or ship builder resulting from an injury occurring upon the navigable waters of the United States, including any adjoining pier, wharf, dry dock, terminal, building way, marine railway, or other adjoining area customarily used by an employer in loading, unloading, repairing, or building a vessel.

The term "employee" is specifically defined as any person engaged in maritime employment, including any longshoreman or other person engaged in longshoring operations, and any harbor worker including a ship repairman, shipbuilder, and shipbreaker.   Coverage under the LHWCA requires both situs location, or situs, and status, but certain kinds of locations, such as physical presence on actual navigable waters, will fulfill the status requirement.

Under the Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act, workers injured while handling containerized cargo or conventional, noncontainerized forms of cargo, are engaged in maritime employment so as to be covered by the Act if they were Employees injured while working in capacities directly supporting the loading and unloading of ships are within the maritime employment requirements of the Act, at least where there was some direct involvement with maritime activities. The Act is not intended to cover purely clerical workers or other workers employed in or adjacent to marine terminals whose duties do not constitute an integral part of the loading or unloading process or fall within some other traditionally maritime area.  The Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act specifically mentions shipbuilding, ship repair, and shipbreaking as maritime employment so that the question becomes one of determining whether particular work comes within the meaning of these terms.

Working at a port or shipyard is dangerous.  If you are or know a longshoreman or harbor worker who has been injured while working in ports or shipyards, please have them call one of our attorneys for free legal advice. 

For more information about our Longshore practice, please call attorney Tim Nies at 772-283-8712 day or night.