Changes to outdated law is welcome news to Deepwater Horizon families

The Death on the High Seas Act (DOHSA) has been amended in ways that will benefit the victims of the Deepwater Horizon explosion. Last month, the House Judiciary Committee voted to make changes that would lift damage limits and compensate families more fairly.

Under the SPILL Act, H.R. 5503, officially known as the “Securing Protections for the Injured from Limitations on Liability Act,” noneconomic damages can be recovered by the families of the 11 workers killed in the blast.

The John Conyers (D-Mich) sponsored legislation imposes greater liability upon platform owner Transocean by repealing the Limitation of Liability Act, an antiquated law from 1851 that previously gave the company the right to claim responsibility for only $27 million worth of damages, which is the value of the now sunken platform. It also changes the Jones Act to allow noneconomic damages to be paid from maritime employers to family members of surviving seafarers.