FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Miranda Sevcik 713 515-9729
/

Drilling Rig in Gulf of Mexico Explosion: 11 People Still Missing
Attorney Rob Ammons Tells Fox News About Workers Legal Rights
Coast Guard hotline for next of kin: (832) 587-8554

April 22, 2010 Houston: Survivors of a thunderous blast aboard an oil platform off the Louisiana were being reunited with their families at a suburban New Orleans hotel early Thursday as the search for 11 missing workers continued.  About 100 workers who made it to a supply boat after Tuesday night's explosion, arrived in Port Fourchon earlier Thursday where they were checked by doctors.  Seventeen people were injured and taken to hospitals, four in critical condition, in what could be one of the nation's deadliest offshore drilling accidents of the past half-century.

According to the Coast Guard an overnight explosion in the Gulf of Mexico Tuesday, April 20, 2010 has rocked the Deepwater Horizon oil rig off the Louisiana coast, sending bursts of flame into the sky.   The Coast Guard reports at least seven workers were critically injured. Eleven others were reported missing after the explosion.

Oil rig explosion attorney Rob Ammons appeared on Fox morning news today to talk about workers rights after an offshore oil rig explosion.  Although the cause of the explosion is not yet known, Ammons says oil rigs should be equipped with Blow Out Preventers (BOPs) for the situation seen on the Deepwater Horizon.  Ammons adds the legal rights of the workers on that rig are different because they performed their work out on the water.

"On land oil rig workers fall under worker compensation laws but on the high seas there is what's referred to as the Jones Act that provides rights and remedies to workers injured on the job."  Ammons adds.  " The difference is that unlike on land where if you are hurt on the job you don't have a right to file a lawsuit against their employer, offshore workers have a right ad remedy in district court to file a case against their employer for their employer's negligence in causing their injuries."

"Offshore rig workers also have a right to what's called maintenance," Says Ammons.  "Maintenance is a daily payment for living expenses, regardless of fault they have that right.  Furthermore they have the right to what's called medical cure.  The right to select their own doctor and get the kind of treatment they need to get as well as they can."

Ammons says injured oil rig workers have the right to counsel and before signing any paperwork someone who is injured should speak with a lawyer because they could be signing away their legal rights.  The legal rights of families who have lost loved ones in oil rig explosions are protected under the Death on the High Seas Act.

Rob Ammons is Board Certified in Personal Injury Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization, in addition to being Board Certified in Civil Law by the National Board of Trial Advocacy.  Rob Ammons' law practice, The Ammons Law Firm, is located in Houston, Texas.  The Ammons Law Firm practice is exclusively personal injury law, handling such cases as: oil rig explosions, truck accidents, plant explosions, refinery accidents, tire defects, wrongful death, post-collision fires, seat belt defects, airbag defects, SUV rollovers and workplace negligence.