Running casing puts heavy joints and a specialized crew in motion at height.
Casing runs bring large-diameter pipe, power tongs, a stabbing board, and an extra casing crew onto an already busy floor. The added weight and the work at height raise the stakes on every joint.
Casing the well.
Running casing is lowering large-diameter pipe into the hole and making it up with power tongs, often with a casing crew and a worker on the stabbing board guiding joints at height.
Crushed, struck, fallen.
Hands and limbs caught in the power tongs or between joints, a swinging or dropped joint, a stabbing-board fall, and rigging failures. The weight of casing makes these among the most severe drill-floor injuries.
Which law — and who answers.
Drilling crews are seamen, so the claim runs under the Jones Act and the general maritime law.
The contractor that owns the rig and crews the floor answers for unsafe procedure and equipment under the Jones Act.
The operator’s drilling program and company representative on board can carry responsibility for the decisions that set the pace.
A defective top drive, iron roughneck, tong, or elevator — or a service contractor’s negligence — supports a separate claim, and an unfit one can render the rig unseaworthy.
The floor crew are crew of a vessel or MODU, so the Jones Act and unseaworthy doctrine apply — not a landside comp schedule.
Sound like your situation? Calling us is confidential, costs nothing, and starts nothing you don’t choose to start.
Text (713) 489-2297We reconstruct the run.
The firm rebuilds the casing run, the rigging, and the crew positions, drawing on the crush and fall analyses and the drilling-crew status proof.
What the other side will argue.
Expect the familiar moves — the claim that the rigging was sound rather than the run unplanned — alongside the standard fights over seaman status, comparative fault, and surveillance. The full Drilling defense playbook, with how each argument is met, is set out on our drilling operations page.
Heavy joints demand a plan.
Casing weight, the tong torque, fall protection on the stabbing board, and the exclusion zone are all governed by custom and practice that the firm establishes through a marine-safety expert. The rigging records, the casing-running procedure, the JSA, and the equipment maintenance logs show whether the operation was planned to keep people clear, and the featherweight causation standard carries causation.
Every casing joint is heavy enough to end a career — which is why the run has to be planned, not improvised.
What to protect first.
For this work the evidence is the rigging records, the casing-running procedure, and the equipment logs — held by the company and routinely overwritten, so demand preservation in writing before it is lost, and get prompt medical care. The full first-days checklist is on our drilling operations page.
Where this connects.
Drilling Operations · Tripping Pipe · Crush Injuries · Falls · Drilling Crew
What happens when you text us
Tell us what happened — in your own words, as much or as little as you want.
We review it free. You learn whether maritime law protects you and what your options actually are.
You decide. Nothing is filed, and no one contacts your employer, unless you choose to move forward.
Your conversation with us is confidential. There is no fee unless we win. Hablamos español.
Reach out even if…
- You think the accident was partly your fault — under the Jones Act, your own fault reduces a recovery but does not bar it.
- You already gave a statement or signed something — a release signed under pressure can be challenged.
- You still work for the company — talking to a lawyer is confidential, and retaliation for pursuing a claim can itself be actionable.
- You’re not sure your case is “big enough” — that’s exactly what a free review is for.
Catastrophic offshore injury? The investigation can’t wait.
Equipment gets repaired, records get revised, and witnesses rotate off the rig. Doyle Dennis Avery LLP moves quickly to preserve the evidence and identify every responsible party. A case review costs nothing, there is no obligation, and your employer will not know you contacted us.
This page is general information, not legal advice, and does not create an attorney-client relationship. The law that applies to an offshore injury — the Jones Act, the LHWCA and \u00a7 905(b), OCSLA, the general maritime law, product-liability law, or another body of law — and the parties responsible depend on the specific facts. Prior results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome. Doyle Dennis Avery LLP · Houston, Texas. This is attorney advertising.
