Our client, a young husband with three children, was a floor hand and Jones Act seaman who suffered a shoulder injury while working on an offshore jack-up drilling rig while working for Blake Offshore, LLC. The injury required arthroscopic surgery. Suit was filed in federal court in New Orleans. Blake and its insurance company offered relatively little in settlement, so the case proceeded to trial. The court determined that Blake’s termination of our client’s employment after his injury constituted “retaliatory discharge” under maritime law, meaning that Blake’s firing was motivated by our client exercising his right to hire an attorney and make a claim. The court awarded a total of $623,000, more than double what had been offered in settlement.