Lafayette Oilfield Accident Lawyer

In 2025, oil and gas support work made up 29.5 times as large a share of Lafayette Parish's private jobs as it did nationally. Counting drilling contractors too, the parish had about 5,900 private jobs in oil and gas drilling and support that year. Average pay was $108,231 a year. For a hand earning that, comp's weekly maximum replaces less than half.

Brandt & Sherman, in Lafayette, has more than 50 years of combined experience. If you were hurt on a drilling or workover rig, a frac or completion job, a saltwater disposal site, a wellsite service job or in an oilfield truck, Louisiana workers' comp usually covers you. Other companies may owe you more. For an offshore rig, a platform or a vessel, or work supporting offshore operations, federal law may apply instead, and our offshore accident page covers it. Injuries at plants and refineries are covered on our industrial and plant accident page.

Louisiana comp covers land rigs, and it is only one claim

Louisiana workers' comp usually covers oil and gas workers hurt on land rigs and wellsites. There is no oil and gas exemption. The law covers employees hurt in accidents that arise out of and in the course of their work.

Louisiana workers' compensation pays medical care and weekly checks while you cannot work, at two-thirds of your average weekly wage. For injuries from September 1, 2026 through August 31, 2027, the weekly maximum is $903. The minimum is $241. On the parish's average oil and gas drilling and support pay, two-thirds of the weekly wage is about $1,388. Comp stops at $903.

Comp is generally all you get from your own company. The rest of the location is different. Comp does not cancel a claim against another company (R.S. 23:1101). If you win a judgment, your employer's comp insurer is repaid first (R.S. 23:1103). It also takes a credit against future comp, so checks can pause after a recovery. If you sue anyone else, such as another company or an outside driver, your employer and its comp insurer must be told right away, in writing, with the name of the court. Before you settle with anyone else, or with their insurer, both must approve the settlement in writing. Skipping either step can cost you future comp and medical care (R.S. 23:1102). Our industrial and plant accident page explains who gets repaid first and how the approval rule works.

Louisiana's Third Circuit Court of Appeal set a limit on that loss in 2015, in a case from a land rig. After the injured worker settled with the drilling contractor, the comp insurer tried to make him repay the benefits it had paid. It lost. The court held that R.S. 23:1102 takes away future comp and medical benefits but gives the insurer no right to make the worker repay benefits already paid (Beslin v. Anadarko Petroleum Corp., 15-291 (La. App. 3 Cir. 10/7/15), 175 So.3d 1134).

Who is on the location, and who you can sue

On a wellsite you can usually sue any company that caused your injury, except your employer, a company that borrowed you and directed your work, and any company the contracts make your statutory employer. Of 2,101 severe oil and gas injuries reported to federal OSHA in 32 states and territories from January 2015 to July 2022, operators' own employees accounted for 137. That is 6.5%. The person hurt rarely works for the company whose well it is.

A Lafayette businessman made room for the oil companies early. Maurice Heymann began the Oil Center in 1952 to draw the industry's regional offices to Lafayette rather than New Orleans or Lake Charles. It grew quickly. By 1959 it held office space for more than 250 companies. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 23, 2020.

Some companies on the location can be sued for every kind of damages, including pain and suffering, even though your employer cannot, and which ones depends on the contracts between them. Louisiana gives a company up the chain (the law calls it a principal) that qualifies as your statutory employer the same tort immunity your direct employer has, and that defense is routine in oilfield work, so the contracts are the first thing to read. Say an operator hires a drilling contractor, which hires your company. If the drilling contract covers your company's work, the drilling contractor can claim to be your statutory employer. The operator generally needs a written contract that expressly names it your statutory employer to make that claim. Immunity can run up the chain.

That happened to a water-truck driver in a 2025 Third Circuit case. His truck rolled off a levee road in Washington, Louisiana, while he was hauling water for hydrotesting at a pipeline station, not a wellsite. The court held that the general contractor two contracts above his employer was his statutory employer. So was the station's owner, because its written contract with that general contractor named the owner the statutory employer of the contractor's employees, including statutory employees like him. Both were immune from his suit (Charles v. Transcontinental Gas Pipeline Co., 24-405 (La. App. 3 Cir. 3/12/25)). It was a loss for the driver. Contracts between the companies above him decided it.

A floorhand hurt when a rented tong failed may have a claim against the rental company. The maker may owe you too. If the tong was defective in its design, construction or warnings, the maker can face a defective equipment claim under the Louisiana Products Liability Act.

Who pays for the operator's mistakes

Louisiana's Oilfield Anti-Indemnity Act (R.S. 9:2780) generally stops the operator from making your employer pay for the operator's own negligence in oil, gas and water well work. Contract clauses that try are void. One exception, written into the statute by Act 328 of 2026 and effective August 1, 2026, is coverage on your employer's insurance policy that the operator asks for in writing and pays your employer's insurer for directly. The operator then covers the first $100,000 of any deductible and your employer the rest, so the contracts and policy decide what, if anything, your employer pays. Indemnity is void only to the extent the operator was at fault, so some clauses can still apply.

Oilfield trucks and the logbook exceptions

Oilfield trucks can run under two federal hours-of-service exceptions (49 CFR 395.1(d)). The driver's logbook shows how each was used. The rules call it the record of duty status. A driver whose truck only hauls oilfield equipment or services field operations can restart an 8-day period after 24 straight hours off duty. A specially trained driver of a well-servicing truck must log wellsite waiting time as off duty and mark it as waiting time. That time does not count toward the 14-hour period. So a logbook can show hours of waiting at the well as off duty. Ask for the logbook early.

If an outside driver caused your work crash, you can have a comp claim and a claim against that driver, unless the driver works for a company that counts as your statutory employer. Coworkers are different. If a coworker was driving the crew truck, comp is usually your only claim against the coworker and your company. If an oilfield truck hit you off the job, see our page on commercial truck crash claims.

Deadlines and fault rules after a rig injury

A comp claim generally must be filed within one year (R.S. 23:1209), and an injury lawsuit against another company within two years for claims arising after July 1, 2024 (Civil Code article 3493.1, enacted by Act 423 of 2024). The comp year runs from the accident, or from the last payment if comp has been paid. The two-year clock runs while you identify every company on the location. The evidence goes faster. A family's wrongful death claim runs one year from the death or two years from the injury, whichever is longer (Civil Code article 2315.2, as amended by Act 176 of 2025).

For causes of action arising on or after January 1, 2026, a person found 51 percent or more at fault recovers nothing (article 2323, as amended by Act 15 of 2025). Below that, your share comes off. The judge or jury can put a share of fault on your employer even though it cannot be sued, and that share comes off what the other companies pay you (articles 2323(A) and 2324(B)).

What to do now

Start your own record on day one. OSHA's process safety rule, which makes covered plants investigate chemical releases, does not apply to oil or gas well drilling or servicing (29 CFR 1910.119(a)(2)(ii)).

Severe injuries do reach OSHA, as reports the employer files. From January 2015 through November 2025, employers reported nine severe injuries to OSHA at Broussard addresses listed on Highway 90. Five were amputations. Two of the nine came from employers classed as oil and gas support companies, and one came from a highway-construction site listed as Interstate 49 and Hwy 90. A report is the employer's account, not an OSHA finding.

On a rig floor, the unwritten rule is to keep quiet unless something is broken. That rule costs people claims. A written report made the day it happened ties the injury to the job.

• Report the injury to your employer in writing and keep a copy, even if the company suggests using your own health insurance.
• List every company on the location, and ask for copies of the job safety analysis (JSA) and permits.
• Photograph the equipment and the location.
• If a truck was involved, ask in writing that the driver's logbook be kept.

Oilfield accident FAQs

Does Louisiana workers' comp cover me if I was hurt on a land rig?

Yes, in most cases. There is no oil and gas exemption. The law covers employees hurt in accidents that arise out of and in the course of their work, including on land rigs, frac jobs and oilfield trucks. Work tied to offshore operations can fall under federal law instead.

Can I sue my employer after an oilfield accident in Louisiana?

Usually not. Comp is your only remedy against the company that employs you. The same protection can reach a drilling contractor above your company, as your statutory employer. The narrow exception is an injury your employer intended or knew was substantially certain to happen.

Can I sue if a coworker was driving the crew truck?

Usually not. Louisiana comp protects your employer and its employees acting on the job, so comp is your only claim against your employer and a coworker driving the crew truck for work. Others may still owe you, such as the truck's maker, a repair shop, or an outside driver and the company the driver works for, unless that company counts as your statutory employer.

I signed the JSA (job safety analysis). Does that make the accident my fault?

Not by itself. A JSA shows what hazards the crew discussed. The judge or jury assigns fault among every company and person involved, including your employer. For causes of action arising on or after January 1, 2026, a person found 51 percent or more at fault recovers nothing.

Will suing the operator get me blackballed or cost my employer money?

Louisiana's Oilfield Anti-Indemnity Act generally stops the operator from making your employer pay for the operator's own negligence, though insurance terms in the contracts can still leave your employer some cost, such as part of a large deductible. Blackballing is the harder question. Louisiana law bars firing you, or refusing to hire you, because you made a comp claim, though an employer can still let you go if your injury keeps you from doing the job. That law is written for comp claims, not for a suit against another company.

How is pain and suffering decided in Louisiana?

There is no formula. Louisiana's Civil Code says "much discretion must be left to the judge or jury" in assessing damages. Comp does not pay for pain and suffering, so for an oilfield hand it usually comes from a claim against another company.

Talk to a Lafayette oilfield accident lawyer

The operator and service companies on that location have insurers and lawyers. You should too. Failed tools and records can disappear once rental equipment goes back to the yard, so ask in writing that the evidence be kept.

Call (337) 800-4000 or contact us online. The consultation is free, and there is no attorney fee unless we win. Clients may be responsible for costs and expenses.