Law Office of Scott A. Nelson, P.C.

If you work on an oil rig anywhere in the world, you know how dangerous an accident can be. Injuries suffered to workers on oil rigs are often very serious. They may include, broken bones, serious burns, head trauma and spine trauma. When an oil rig worker is seriously hurt, his livelihood and ability to help his family is in serious jeopardy.

A good oil rig accident attorney knows that many of these accidents are completely preventable. Often, the severe injuries and death are caused by unsafe working conditions or defective wellheads or other equipment. Oftentimes, the oil companies which own or manage the rigs will be found liable because they failed to implement sufficient safety and security measures or failed to properly maintain the oil rig.  Oil rig operators are also under a lot of pressure to work as fast as possible because time is often money.  Safety is often overlooked for money.

An injured worker may be able to recover damages for lost wages, lost future wages and income, pain and suffering, past medical bills, future medical care, funeral costs. Punitive damages, designed to punish the wrongdoer, may also be awarded in some cases.

 Some of the more common causes for oil rig accidents include:

A cruise ship accident lawyer needs to know that typical maritime law does not always apply to cruise ship accidents. Often, cruise lines have certain provisions in their passenger tickets (which are authorized by United States federal statutes) which change (and often shorten) the time in which an injured passenger may file a lawsuit. Although the usual statute of limitations for maritime cases is three years, these provisions often shorten the time to one year. Moreover, cruise ship lines also have forum selection clauses, which mandate that they can only be sued in a certain place (often Miami, Florida).

Another trick they use is to have the ship registered in a foreign country while flying a foreign flag. As such, typical United Sates maritime law may not be applicable. Various international treaties signed by the United States and the "flagged country" may need to be considered.

Once you are on a cruise ship, you are pretty much stuck there. As such, vacationers on cruise ships must truly place their trust in the company. As such, the cruise ship operators must provide security to the passengers to protect them from operators of the ships, as they have few means to leave the ship once a cruise starts. Because of this, cruise lines must be diligent in providing security to passengers to protect them from other vacationers and from assaults by crew members.

If you are injured on a cruise ship, here are some things to remember:

1. Make a written report to the ships’ security department. Make sure you get a copy.

2. Get treatment from the ship’s doctor or medical staff.

3. Go to the shore side doctor at the next stop. If the matter is serious, see your doctor when you get home. Cruise ship doctors are not the best in the world.

4. Take photographs or video of the accident scene.

5. Get the name and contact information of all witnesses and cruise line personnel that have knowledge of the accident.

Contact Texas cruise ship accident attorney Scott Nelson if you or a loved one has been injured on a cruise ship. Serving Galveston, Houston, Brownsville, Corpus Christi and all of Texas.

The Death on the High Seas Act (DOHSA) applies to persons, including passengers, when the death is caused by a wrongful act on the high seas beyond a marine league from the shore of all states, dependencies and territories of the United States.  DOHSA does not apply to deaths on the Great Lakes or the rivers or lakes within the country.  All suits under DOHSA must be brought in admiralty.  The statute of limitations for DOHSA lawsuits is now three years.   

DOHSA actions may only be brought by the decedent’s personal representative, for the exclusive benefit of the decedent’s parent, child, spouse, or “dependent relative.”  Children, parents and the spouse do not have to prove dependency to recover.  The other relatives must show dependency.

The case can only be in United States district courts, in admiralty, and without a jury.  However, actions brought under general maritime wrongful death or survival law or under the Jones Act may be brought either in state or federal court.

Maritime lawyers should be aware of the limited damages recovery under DOHSA.  Damages are limited to the pecuniary loss only of the persons for whose benefit the suit is brought.  This means a recovery of only the actual economic losses (salary, paychecks, etc.) which the beneficiaries could reasonably have expected to have received from the life of the decedent.  There is no recovery for loss of love and affection, loss of consortium, loss of society, loss of companionship, or mental anguish. However, included in the pecuniary losses is the value of nurture to children, funeral expenses, loss of services around the home, and the value of the financial contributions that the decedent would have made to his dependents.

Decedents included in DOHSA are any person whose death was caused on the high seas, including seamen, passengers and crewmembers of a vessel, as well as the crew and passengers of aircraft crashing on the high seas, if the cause of death was a “maritime tort.”

Contact Corpus Christi maritime attorney Scott Nelson if you need help with a maritime matter.  Serving Brownsville, Galveston and all of South Texas.

Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy Syndrome (RSDS) is a condition with multiple conflicting and odd, even bizarre symptoms. The one symptom which seems to be consistent is pain, often excruciating. The injured person’s complaints of severe pain often are not accepted at face value because the factor causing the pain is often not the one which is associated with the extreme symptoms.

Personal injury lawyers should understand that RSDS may occur in any area of the body, but the most common is in the person’s extremities. One of the biggest problems with RSDS is the failure of the treating doctors to diagnose it. The typical history of a very slight blunt trauma to a small area of an extremity usually does not result in serious problems to the entire extremity. The doctor may then think the problem is in the person’s head and then send them out for psychological help. Moreover, the person’s family also may think that the problem is in the person’s head. This may cause great despair and sadness to the injured person.

There may be a significant negligence or personal injury action against the defendant who caused the initial slight trauma. This is similar to a case where a hemophiliac bleeds to death from a slight cut. Moreover, there may be a medical negligence claim if the doctor failed to make a timely diagnosis.

RSDS was described in a study by various doctors in 1864. These doctors studied Civil War soldiers who were shot in the extremities and developed a syndrome consisting of constant and persistent burning pain with progressive trophic changes. They named the condition "erythromelalgia." Over the years, the condition has had many names.

The cause of RSDS is not clearly known at this time. It appears that the sympathetic nervous symptom may turn on in an attempt to help the person’s body deal with the original trauma, but then fails to turn off and remains "hyperactive." RSDS may affect all levels of tissue, including muscle, bone, skin, subcutaneous, fascia and synovium. Symptoms are often varied and contradictory, if not bizarre.

Contact Corpus Christi personal injury lawyer Scott Nelson if you have been seriously injured and need assistance.  Mr. Nelson serves Houston, San Antonio, Corpus Christi, Brownsville, Laredo and all of Texas.