Offshore construction is vessel-based marine work with the heaviest loads at sea.
Building and removing offshore facilities — installation, heavy lifts, hook-up and commissioning, and decommissioning — is done from construction vessels and derrick barges. The crews are usually seamen, and the loads are the largest in the industry.
Building and removing facilities.
Offshore construction installs, connects, and ultimately removes platforms and subsea facilities — through platform installation, heavy lifts, hook-up and commissioning, and decommissioning, worked from construction vessels, derrick barges, and heavy-lift vessels.
Where it goes wrong.
Dropped and shifting loads, rigging and crane failures, stored-energy release during commissioning, cutting and structural-collapse hazards in decommissioning, and the diving and residual-hazard risks throughout. The loads and the contractor stack drive the danger.
Which law — and who answers.
Offshore construction is vessel-based, contractor-heavy work, so liability spreads across the vessel, the contractors, and the equipment makers.
The construction vessel, derrick barge, or heavy-lift vessel and its crew are controlled by the owner/operator, who answers under the Jones Act and whose unfit vessel or gear can be unseaworthy.
The installation, rigging, and lift companies answer for negligent work and planning; the borrowed-employee doctrine sorts out who controlled the job.
A defective crane, winch, rigging component, or cutting tool supports a products claim against the manufacturer.
On a construction vessel the crew are usually seamen (Jones Act); on a fixed structure the LHWCA/OCSLA and §905(b) vessel negligence apply. The firm preserves whichever route fits (Jones Act vs. workers’ comp).
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Each phase has its own page below. Heavy lifts cross-link our crane and construction-vessel pages; the crews’ status runs through the construction-crew analysis.
What the other side will argue — and how it’s met.
Construction cases turn on status, the lift plan, and the contractor stack.
Offshore construction crews work from construction vessels, derrick barges, and heavy-lift vessels (usually seamen, Chandris) or from a platform under construction (LHWCA/OCSLA). The firm fixes the structure and preserves both the Jones Act and the §905(b) vessel negligence/OCSLA routes (Jones Act vs. workers’ comp).
The Jones Act uses pure comparative negligence; a worker’s own fault reduces a recovery but never bars it. A jury once found the injured worker zero percent at fault.
Offshore lifts are engineered with a lift plan, rated rigging, and load charts. A dropped or shifted load means the plan, the rigging inspection, or the crane failed — and the lift plan, the rigging certificates, and the crane records show it.
Insurers film injured workers for weeks and usually find nothing, while the treating physicians and the medical record carry the truth.
Construction cases are won on lift plans and vessel records.
Whatever the phase, the firm reconstructs the operation, sets custom and practice through a rigging and marine-safety expert, and proves what the companies knew through the lift plans, the rigging certificates, the crane and vessel records, and the procedures. The crews are usually seamen, so the Jones Act reaches the employer and the unseaworthy doctrine reaches the vessel.
An offshore construction injury is rarely bad luck — it is a lift plan, a rigging inspection, or a survey that fell short.
What to protect while it still exists.
Lift and vessel records are detailed and routinely overwritten. Securing them early is decisive.
The lift plan, the rigging certificates, the crane inspection and maintenance records, the construction procedure, and the vessel logs are the case — and they sit with the vessel owner and the contractors. Demand preservation at once.
Make sure a written incident report is created, and that the vessel files a Coast Guard marine-casualty report (Form CG‑2692) for a serious injury.
See a doctor promptly and describe exactly how the injury happened to every provider. An honest, contemporaneous record is the backbone of the case.
You are not required to give the insurer a recorded statement, and early “I’m okay” remarks get used against you. Get advice before signing.
Where this connects.
Platform Installation · Heavy Lifts · Hook-Up & Commissioning · Decommissioning · All Operations · Construction Vessels
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.
