Longshore & Harbor Workers' Comp (LHWCA) Lawyer: 2026 Claim Guide

The short answer: if you were hurt on the waterfront, look at the LHWCA before signing anything

If you unload ships, repair vessels, or work a shipyard and you get hurt on the job, the form your employer hands you may point you toward state workers’ compensation. That is often the wrong door. Maritime workers on and around navigable waters are frequently covered by the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act (LHWCA) — a federal law whose benefits are generally more generous than state comp, and whose structure gives you options state comp never does. My read is simple: any injury that happens on or near a pier, dock, terminal, or shipyard deserves an LHWCA eligibility check before you sign a single form.

Enacted in 1927 and codified at 33 U.S.C. § 901 and following, the LHWCA is administered by the Department of Labor’s Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (OWCP). Two features define it. First, it is no-fault: you receive medical care and disability benefits whether or not anyone was careless, and you do not have to prove your employer did anything wrong. Second, in exchange, the LHWCA is generally your exclusive remedy against your employer — you cannot sue your employer for a larger tort recovery.

But the statute does not seal off every avenue. When someone other than your employer — most importantly the owner of the vessel where you were hurt — was negligent, you can pursue a separate lawsuit under Section 905(b) while still collecting your comp benefits. Workers who understand this dual track often recover far more than those who treat the comp claim as the whole story.

This guide walks through who qualifies, how the LHWCA differs from the Jones Act and state comp, what benefits look like, the third-party vessel claim, the claims and appeals process, and how to pick the right attorney.

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Am I covered? The situs and status tests

LHWCA coverage turns on passing two tests at once. Satisfying only one is not enough.

The situs (location) test asks whether your injury occurred on navigable waters of the United States or in an adjoining area. That adjoining area includes any pier, wharf, dry dock, terminal, building way, or marine railway customarily used to load, unload, repair, build, or dismantle a vessel. You do not have to be injured over the water — a shoreside work area tied to vessel work counts.

The status (occupation) test asks whether you were engaged in maritime employment at the time. Longshoremen, harbor workers, ship repairers, shipbuilders, and ship-breakers are the classic covered occupations. By contrast, certain workers are excluded under Section 2(3) — for example, some purely clerical staff, marina employees, and specified retail or recreational personnel.

Because both tests must be met, working “near the docks” does not guarantee coverage. A clerk who only processes paperwork in a terminal office and a worker lashing containers under a crane can land on opposite sides of the line. The closer your job is to that boundary, the more the early factual record decides your case.

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LHWCA vs. Jones Act vs. state comp: getting the classification right is everything

The costliest mistake in maritime injury law is confusing the LHWCA with the Jones Act. These regimes do not overlap. A worker is generally either a “seaman” or a shoreside “maritime worker,” and the label controls the remedy.

The Jones Act covers seamen — crew members with a substantial connection to a vessel (or fleet) in navigation, typically spending a meaningful share of their work time aboard (courts look to the roughly 30% guidepost from the Chandris line of cases). The Jones Act is not no-fault; it is a negligence lawsuit against the employer. The tradeoff is that a successful seaman can recover full tort damages, including pain and suffering.

The LHWCA covers workers on the landward side who are not seamen. It is no-fault, so you do not prove fault, but it does not pay pain and suffering.

Feature	LHWCA (harbor worker)	Jones Act (seaman)	State workers’ comp
Who it covers	Longshore, dock, shipyard, repair	Vessel crew members	General land-based workers
Nature	Federal no-fault benefits	Fault-based lawsuit	State no-fault benefits
Proof of fault	Not required	Required (employer negligence)	Not required
Pain and suffering	Generally no	Yes	Generally no
Forum	Federal (OWCP / ALJ)	Federal or state court	State agency

Borderline workers — sometimes called the “twilight zone” — face very different outcomes depending on classification. Misclassified as a seaman, you may lose no-fault benefits; misclassified as a harbor worker, you may lose the tort damages a negligence case would have delivered. Sort this out early, with counsel who handles both.

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What benefits does the LHWCA actually provide?

LHWCA benefits fall into three buckets: medical, disability, and death.

Medical benefits cover all reasonable and necessary treatment for the work injury, with no copays, and — importantly — you pick your initial treating physician.

Disability compensation is based on 66⅔% of your average weekly wage (AWW). The maximum is twice the national average weekly wage, adjusted by the Department of Labor every October. Disability comes in four forms:

• Temporary Total Disability (TTD) — unable to work at all while healing
• Temporary Partial Disability (TPD) — limited work while healing
• Permanent Total Disability (PTD) — permanently unable to work
• Permanent Partial Disability (PPD) — permanent loss of a body part or earning capacity

PPD splits into scheduled and unscheduled awards. For listed body parts — arm, leg, hand, eye, hearing — the statute fixes the number of weeks paid. Injuries not on the schedule, such as most back injuries, are valued by loss of wage-earning capacity.

Scheduled loss	Statutory weeks
Arm	312
Leg	288
Hand	244
Foot	205
Eye	160
Thumb	75
Hearing, one ear	52
Hearing, both ears	200

Death benefits pay a surviving spouse alone 50% of the AWW, or a spouse with children 66⅔%, plus funeral expenses up to the statutory cap of $3,000. Deaths from occupational disease — noise-induced hearing loss, asbestos, or chemical exposure — qualify when the work connection is established.

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The Section 905(b) vessel-negligence claim

This is where the LHWCA gives you real leverage. Your employer is shielded from a larger suit once it provides no-fault benefits under Section 5(a). But if the vessel where you were injured was owned by a separate party, Section 905(b) lets you sue that vessel owner for its own negligence — a distinct claim you pursue in addition to your comp benefits.

Vessel-owner negligence is framed around the three Scindia duties: the turnover duty to hand over a reasonably safe vessel before cargo operations begin; the active control duty over areas the vessel still controls; and the duty to intervene when the vessel learns of an obvious hazard during operations. Poorly maintained decks, dangerous cargo stowage, and defective lighting or safety gear are common battlegrounds.

One rule you cannot ignore: when you recover from a third party, your employer and its insurer hold a statutory lien (Section 33) for the benefits they already paid. If you want to settle a third-party claim for less than your compensation, you must obtain written approval first — settling without it can forfeit your future benefits. Workers who rush a settlement without understanding this rule have lost their entire comp entitlement.

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How the claims and appeals process works

Half of an LHWCA claim is deadline management. Miss a date and a valid claim can be dismissed.

Step	Deadline / form	What happens
Notice of injury	Within 30 days	Written notice to employer
Employer report	Promptly (LS-202)	Employer files first report of injury
Formal claim	Within 1 year (LS-203)	From injury or last payment
Occupational disease	2 years (from awareness)	Hearing loss, asbestos, etc.
Informal conference	OWCP district office	Attempt to resolve
Formal hearing	OALJ	Hearing before an administrative law judge
Appeals	BRB → Court of Appeals → Supreme Court	Successive review

You notify your employer within 30 days, the employer files a first report of injury (LS-202), and you file your claim (LS-203) within a year. Disputes first go to an informal conference at the OWCP district office. If that fails, the case moves to a formal hearing before an administrative law judge at the Office of Administrative Law Judges. An adverse ALJ decision can be appealed to the Benefits Review Board, then to a U.S. Court of Appeals, and ultimately to the Supreme Court.

Lump-sum resolutions run through Section 8(i). These are generally final and often waive future medical rights, and they are only valid once approved by the OWCP or an ALJ. Before signing, confirm the number reflects future treatment costs and the risk that your condition deteriorates.

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How to choose an LHWCA attorney — and who pays

LHWCA cases blend federal procedure with maritime-specific doctrine, so you want a lawyer who actually handles longshore and maritime injury work. A general workers’ comp or personal-injury attorney who cannot pair a Section 905(b) vessel claim with the comp benefits will leave money on the table.

Things worth confirming before you hire:

• A real track record in LHWCA, DBA, and OCSLA matters
• Willingness to run the Section 905(b) third-party claim alongside the comp claim
• Command of average-weekly-wage calculation — overtime and premium pay inclusion can swing your benefit
• Access to independent medical opinions rather than only the company doctor
• A clear, written explanation of fees

On cost, the LHWCA tilts in the worker’s favor. Under Section 28, if the employer or insurer denies benefits and you later prevail, the employer’s side pays your attorney’s fees rather than the fee coming out of your pocket. Those fees must be approved by the OWCP or an ALJ. The Section 905(b) third-party lawsuit is the exception, typically handled on contingency.

If you want to see how the same third-party injury structure plays out in a heavy-industry setting, the refinery and plant explosion injury lawsuit guide covers parallel ground.

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The most common mistakes

The errors that sink cases are predictable.

Signing state comp paperwork by reflex. A waterfront injury processed only under state comp can forfeit the more generous federal benefits.

Blowing the deadlines. The 30-day notice and one-year filing windows pass faster than injured workers expect while they focus on recovery.

Using only the company clinic. Your first choice of treating physician is yours; letting the employer’s doctor set a low disability rating is avoidable.

Ignoring the Section 905(b) claim. Where vessel negligence is in play, skipping the third-party suit throws away damages — including pain and suffering — that comp never pays.

Settling too soon. A Section 8(i) lump sum can waive future medical care. Closing out a claim before your condition stabilizes is often irreversible.

Planning for the income gap during recovery, or protecting your family if a workplace injury turns fatal, is part of the same picture — the guaranteed issue life insurance guide is a useful companion read. And if you run a maritime-adjacent small business, the S-corp reasonable salary and payroll tax guide covers a different financial angle worth knowing.

Hurt on the waterfront? The sequence is straightforward: confirm coverage, protect the deadlines, choose your own doctor, check for a third-party claim, and treat any settlement as the last step, not the first. Getting those five things right prevents most of the avoidable losses.

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This article provides general information about the U.S. LHWCA and is not legal advice. Outcomes depend on the specific facts, jurisdiction, and applicable law of each case. If you have been injured or need to file a claim, consult a qualified attorney who handles longshore and maritime matters.