The case of the missing stair tread.

Gordon Gillies was a sixteen-year offshore professional — a Scottish national who had worked his way up at Ensco and then Valaris from toolpusher to Offshore Installation Manager to Rig Manager. In January 2020 he stepped onto the Valaris DS-15, the Valaris Renaissance, an ultra-deepwater drillship. Descending a short flight of stairs from the derrick elevator, he stepped on a tread whose protective non-slip bullnose had been ripped off — five to seven jagged stub-protrusions left in its place. He fell and landed on his lower back.

The defense theory was open and obvious: an experienced seaman should have seen it. But the company's own evidence undid that argument. The same defect had been on the same stair for months. Valaris's own senior safety training coordinator conceded, on deposition, that the step "should have been repaired before Mr. Gillies ever approached it." Valaris's own Critical Area Verification checklist required stairways to be fitted with non-slip nosing — and the company's own photograph from the afternoon of the fall showed the opposite.

The trial ran four days, entirely on Zoom during COVID. The jury deliberated two hours and returned a $7.86 million verdict, apportioning 99% of the fault to Valaris on the unseaworthiness claim and 90% on the Jones Act negligence claim. It was named a Top 20 Texas verdict for 2022. Read the full Gillies v. Valaris case study, or more of the firm's case work.

Valaris offshore workers across the Gulf and worldwide.

Valaris operates one of the largest offshore drilling fleets in the world — drillships, semisubmersibles, and jackup rigs working the Gulf of Mexico and internationally. The people who run those rigs do some of the most dangerous work there is. If you were hurt doing it, you may have a claim, whatever your role:

What an injured Valaris worker can recover.

If you are a seaman, you are not limited to a workers' comp check. As an injured offshore worker you generally have three overlapping protections:

A Jones Act negligence claim against your employer, under a seaman-friendly causation standard — the same theory that carried 90% of the fault in Gillies. An unseaworthiness claim against the vessel owner for a rig, equipment, or crew not reasonably fit for the job — the theory the jury found 99% on in Gillies, and which does not require proving negligence. And maintenance and cure — a daily allowance and full medical care owed from the moment you're hurt, regardless of fault.

If you've been told you're a workers' comp case, or pushed toward a quick benefit, read Jones Act vs. workers' comp first — the difference can be enormous.