Federal Laws Addressing Liability

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The Longshoremen's and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act

In 1927, Congress enacted the Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act ("LHWCA"), 33 U.S.C. §§ 901 et seq., a FELA-like statute that provides fixed awards to employees or their dependents in cases of employment-related injuries or deaths occurring upon the navigable waters of the United States. Congress enacted the LHWCA to provide injured employees with more immediate and less expensive relief than that available in a common law tort action, and to provide employers with liability that was "limited and determinative."