Herd Law Firm, PLLC

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United States
Spring, TX
Herd Law Firm, PLLC

Personal injury law firm that specializes in Maritime and Longshore cases.

08/31/2026

The Gulf's latest "Big Beautiful" lease sale (BBG3), the first run by the new Marine Minerals Administration (MMA), pulled in $82.7 million earlier this month. 🌊 Behind that number are the real people who will work those blocks — and the maritime laws that protect them when something goes wrong. Our post breaks down the Jones Act vs. Longshore Act divide, and the conflict of interest in the MMA agency merger that should have every mariner's attention.

Sixteen companies bid $82.7 million for the right to drill fifty-nine tracts of the Gulf of Mexico. Behind every one of those tracts stands a future worksite — and a body of law that follows the men and women sent to work it, out past the last sight of land.

08/28/2026

When an injured deckhand on the Houston Ship Channel asks his employer to cover his rent and his surgery, he's invoking a bargain older than the United States itself. "Maintenance and Cure" — the shipowner's duty to heal a sailor hurt in service — runs in an unbroken line from a French island around 1160 all the way to a Texas courtroom. Our new post tells the story. 🌊⚓

From the medieval Rolls of Oléron to the courts of Texas, an injured seaman’s right to be healed at the ship’s expense has proven one of the most durable promises maritime law has ever made. This is its long history — and why nearly every seafaring nation, in every age,

08/21/2026

The sea belongs to no one — and therefore to everyone. That ancient idea is being tested again in the 21-mile gap between Iran and Oman. 🌊⚓ Read our new blog series on the invisible legal lines that divide the water, from Texas' three-league line to the open high seas.

Repeatedly, Iran and Oman are close to a “deal” that would let Tehran meter the Strait of Hormuz — a “toll in all but name,” the world’s shipping lines warn. Strip away the headlines and it is the oldest quarrel in maritime law: whether anyone may

08/17/2026

630 miles from the nearest shore, a car carrier caught fire and 22 sailors had to abandon ship. What saved them wasn't luck — it was a centuries-old duty to rescue and a quiet Coast Guard system that traces back to the Titanic! Here's the story, and why it matters for mariners right here on the Gulf Coast. 🌊

630 miles from the nearest shore, an engine-room fire drove 22 mariners off a Marshall Islands car carrier and into their lifeboats. What sent two passing merchant ships racing to reach them was not luck, but a historical duty older than the U.S. Coast Guard itself — and a reporting system whose

08/14/2026

"A man who spent his first career going into harm's way, spent his second making sure the people who followed him had somewhere to land when they came home."
After 24 years serving and leading in uniform, and 16 more re-engineering the Army's Transition Assistance Program, Colonel (Ret.) Walter M. Herd has "stood down" — and this tribute is from us at Herd Law Firm.

On July 24, 2026, at the General George Patton Museum at Fort Knox, a sixth-generation soldier stood down for the last time. He gave twenty-four years to the uniform and sixteen more to making sure other soldiers were not left behind — and he happens to be my brother.

08/13/2026

A calm sea isn't always a truly peaceful one. The latest Seafarers Happiness Index shows crew morale slipping — not from any single crisis, but from short shore leave, heavy watches, and wages that no longer stretch. We look at what that means for the men and women who keep global trade moving, and for deckhands right here on the Gulf Coast. 🌊

The guns have gone quiet in the Persian Gulf (for now, at least), yet the latest Seafarers Happiness Index finds morale sliding all the same — worn down not by any single catastrophe, but by short shore leave, relentless watches, and wages that no longer stretch.

08/11/2026

Fire is the one casualty at sea with no good solution🔥— you can't outrun it, and you can't anchor away from it. For sixty years, the answer was AFFF firefighting foam. As of this year, a whole class of that foam containing "forever chemicals" has banned from ships worldwide.
If you worked around firefighting foam on a vessel, at a terminal, or in a yard, this one's worth a read! We explain what the new rule covers, what it doesn't, and what protections you still have under maritime law — even years later.

An International Maritime Organization rule took effect this January, and shipboard aqueous film-forming firefighting foam or AFFF is being removed from vessels worldwide. Regulatory compliance may be a matter of finding a replacement, but the harder questions — namely, who answers for sixty years...

08/10/2026

Three children tragically lost their lives on Biscayne Bay when a Miami barge with an obstructed view and no lookout ran over their stalled sailboat at summer camp. The captain has pled guilty to seaman's manslaughter. In our new post, we discuss the oldest rule on the water — keep a lookout! As well as the historic statute behind the criminal charge, and how the families' civil rights differ from the criminal case.

A Miami tug captain has admitted that a blocked view, an empty lookout post, and a phone in his hand cost three young sailors their lives on Biscayne Bay. His guilty plea invokes a federal statute older than the Civil War—and points to the civil duties every vessel owes the small

08/07/2026

A new IMCA 2025 industry safety report found something worth investigating: even though offshore injury rates got better in 2025, offshore deaths more than doubled.

Seven workers died. The causes we know about were an electrocution, a fall, and a mooring line that parted — ordinary tasks on ordinary days.
Here, we explore what those numbers mean, and what U.S. maritime law asks of an employer whose safety record looks good on paper.

The offshore contracting industry's injury rates just got better. Its death toll more than doubled. A new report from the International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA) argues that the numbers we have been celebrating are not the numbers that keep crews alive — and

08/06/2026

🛠️⚓ A new $150 billion U.S.–Korea shipbuilding pact MAGSA just launched in Washington, and could mean more American-built ships — and more American jobs protected by law for Gulf Coast maritime workers, from the shipyard to the open water.

South Korea and the United States have opened a new center in Washington to steer $150 billion into American shipyards under the “MASGA” initiative. Every keel laid in an American yard will eventually carry an American crew — and two different bodies of U.S. law are already waiting to protect ...

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8826 Louetta Road, Suite 310
Spring, TX
77379

Website

http://www.herdlawfirm.com/

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