Insight and Information on Louisiana Law, Litigation, and Legal Culture
By the Admiralty and Maritime Team
Scott Angelle, a native of Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, has been appointed by the Trump Administration to head the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (“BSEE”). Mr. Angelle first held public office in the late 1980’s. He has since served as a Parish President, Secretary of Louisiana’s Department of Natural…
Large and small offshore service companies are turning to the Bankruptcy Code for help with restructuring their balance sheet, and turning to Washington for help with generating more work.
One of the largest offshore service companies in the world, Tidewater, announced this week that it will file a Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition in Delaware…
On April 4, 2017, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that sexual orientation discrimination is prohibited by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
As previously noted, there has been much debate among the courts regarding the meaning of the term “sex” under Title VII and whether discrimination based on sexual orientation…
With less than one week on the job, newly-confirmed Secretary of the Interior, Ryan Zinke announced that BOEM will offer 73,000,000 acres of lease space located in the Gulf of Mexico for oil and gas exploration. Proposed Lease Sale 249 is currently scheduled for August 16, 2017, and will include all unleased areas of federal…
By the Admiralty and Maritime Team
U.S. Coast Guard Form 2692 has been used for over forty (40) years to report marine casualties, commercial diving casualties, or outer continental shelf related causalities. Recently, the Form received a long overdue update. The new version of the form, effective as of 2017, is available here as well…
On February 3, 2017, BSEE issued its first Notice to Lessees (NTL) of 2017, advising of the revised OCSLA Civil Penalty Assessment Matrix. For the second time in 6 months, BSEE has increased the maximum civil penalty to $42,704 per day per violation, up from $42,017 per day per violation that was set in July…
Until the U.S. 5th Circuit gets an opportunity to directly address the continued viability of Scarborough v. Clemco Industries, 391 F.3d 660 (5th Cir. 2004) in the wake of Atlantic Sounding v. Townsend, 557 U.S. 404 (2009), we are likely to see a lack of harmony among the district court judges considering this…
By the Admiralty and Maritime Team
In an earlier blog post here we highlighted the facts in Island Operating Co., v. Jewell, et al., Civil Action No. 16-145, currently pending in the Lafayette Division of the Western District of Louisiana. The central issue in Island Operating is whether a contractor that provides personnel to…
The doctrine of maintenance and cure mandates that an employer pay an injured seaman a per diem living allowance for food and lodging comparable to what the seaman was entitled to while at sea. The injured seaman is also entitled to payment of medical expenses incurred in treating an injury or illness. The duty to…
On October 19, 2016, the Louisiana Third Circuit Court of Appeal in Guidry v. ABC Ins. Co., 2016-61 (La. App. 3 Cir. 10/19/16); — So. 3d — affirmed that a welder injured while assisting in the construction of a bulkhead in Grand Isle, LA was a seaman and that the floating mat on which…
