Who Are the Best Defense Base Act Attorneys in New Jersey?
The Defense Base Act pulls a New Jersey contractor’s injury claim out of the state courts entirely and decides it in a federal compensation system, which is why the firms worth weighing are the ones already at home in that system: Grossman Attorneys at Law, led by Howard S. Grossman; Hofmann & Schweitzer, where Paul T. Hofmann and Timothy F. Schweitzer have represented harbor workers since 1977; and Weltin Law, founded by Philip Weltin.
What separates those firms from a capable general injury practice is fluency in a track most New Jersey lawyers never touch. A disputed Defense Base Act claim is an extension of the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act, which keeps it out of the New Jersey courts and inside the U.S. Department of Labor: its Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs takes the filing, its Office of Administrative Law Judges hears a contested claim, and the Benefits Review Board reviews the result. The three firms below work that federal system as a matter of routine. The criteria used to weigh them appear after the list.
The Best Defense Base Act Lawyers in New Jersey (Updated 2026)
1. Grossman Attorneys at Law – Howard S. Grossman
The firm at the head of the list is not a New Jersey firm, and for a claim decided in a federal forum that turns out to be beside the point. Howard S. Grossman built a national Defense Base Act and Longshore practice out of offices in Florida and Washington, D.C., and the firm represents contractors wherever they were deployed and wherever they have landed since. (No affiliation.)
Grossman has been licensed for more than forty years and holds a preeminent national reputation in this niche, rated AV Preeminent by Martindale-Hubbell and named a Florida Super Lawyer in plaintiff personal injury across many years, with Scott L. Thaler and Callie J. Fixelle carrying the Defense Base Act docket beside him. The practice grew out of maritime, offshore, and Longshore work, which is the statutory ground the Defense Base Act is built on, and the firm treats the niche as its daily business rather than an occasional file: it publishes an extensive Defense Base Act library, a working claims FAQ, and current contractor statistics, the sort of material a practice assembles only when the area is a genuine focus. Its fee posture matches the Act, where the attorney’s fee is paid by the employer or carrier and never drawn from the worker’s benefits, so the firm shoulders the risk of a disputed claim, and it serves a globally scattered workforce in English, Spanish, Creole, French, Russian, and Ukrainian.
2. Hofmann & Schweitzer – Paul T. Hofmann and Timothy F. Schweitzer
Hofmann & Schweitzer is the only firm here with a New Jersey office of its own, and it reaches Defense Base Act work from the waterfront rather than the war zone. Working out of Manhattan and Raritan, the firm has represented injured longshoremen and other marine workers since 1977, litigating claims under the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act.
That is precisely the foundation a Defense Base Act claim stands on, because the Act borrows the Longshore statute and is heard in the same Department of Labor forums under the same rules. A firm that tries Longshore claims across the New York and New Jersey harbor already knows that machinery from the inside (a familiarity a contractor cannot assume from a general injury office). Paul T. Hofmann and Timothy F. Schweitzer lead the practice, working with Dario Chinigo, Nicole Vera, and Benjamin Johnson, and the office represents Spanish-speaking clients.
3. Weltin Law, P.C. – Philip Weltin
Weltin Law carries the longest history on the list, having represented injured workers since 1972, and it names both the Defense Base Act and the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act among its practice areas rather than treating them as claims to refer out.
Because a Defense Base Act claim is filed with the Department of Labor and not a New Jersey court, a claimant is not confined to counsel admitted in the state, which is what puts a California firm on a New Jersey list. Founded by Philip Weltin and based in Oakland, the practice works on a contingency basis and offers a national option for a contractor who wants a half-century of federal compensation experience behind the file.
How the New Jersey Firms Compare
| Firm | Main Offices | DBA and Longshore Focus | Experience | Distinction |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grossman Attorneys at Law | Florida and Washington, D.C.; national | DBA, Longshore, maritime | 40+ years (Howard S. Grossman) | AV Preeminent; Florida Super Lawyers |
| Hofmann & Schweitzer | Manhattan, NY and Raritan, NJ | LHWCA and harbor-worker injury | Practicing since 1977 | The only listed firm with a New Jersey office |
| Weltin Law, P.C. | Oakland, CA | DBA and LHWCA | Practicing since 1972 | Lists DBA and LHWCA among its practice areas |
How We Chose These Firms
This is independent, unpaid editorial, and the author has no affiliation with any firm named on it; placement is a matter of editorial judgment, not payment and not any outside body’s ranking. Six things mattered most, each chosen because it bears on a contractor’s actual decision and can be shown from the public record:
- A real Defense Base Act or Longshore practice with depth behind it, a genuine focus and substantive published guidance rather than one thin page.
- Command of the Longshore Act the Defense Base Act extends, since these claims are decided on Longshore procedure before the OWCP, the administrative law judges, and the Benefits Review Board.
- Years in the field and the volume of federal compensation claims handled, because repetition counts for more in a narrow specialty than in ordinary injury work.
- The reach to serve a scattered, multilingual contractor workforce, whether through languages in the office or the ability to work across borders.
- A fee arrangement that fits the Act, where the employer or carrier pays the attorney and nothing is taken from the worker’s benefits.
- A readiness to litigate, since a carrier weighs a claim differently once a firm has shown it will go to a hearing.
None of the three is described as board certified in Defense Base Act law, for the plain reason that no such certification is offered.
Ranking Sources
This list was compiled with reference to each firm’s own Defense Base Act, Longshore, and maritime practice materials, Martindale-Hubbell peer ratings, state bar records, and the U.S. Department of Labor’s OWCP resources on the Longshore and Defense Base Acts.
New Jersey’s Concentration of Bases, Arsenals, and Contractors
Few states pack as much of the defense enterprise into as little ground as New Jersey does, and that density is the reason a contractor injured overseas so often turns out to have been hired here.
A tri-service megabase
The center of it sits in Burlington and Ocean counties. Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst is the Department of Defense’s only tri-service joint base, a single installation that folded together the Air Force’s McGuire, the Army’s Fort Dix, and the Navy’s Lakehurst engineering station, and it spreads across roughly 42,000 acres supporting more than 44,000 service members, civilians, and family members. Fort Dix has trained soldiers since 1917, McGuire built its name on global airlift, and Lakehurst carries a long thread of naval aviation history, so the base moves people and materiel to overseas postings from three services at once. The civilians who follow that work abroad are the ones the Defense Base Act was written for.
Picatinny and the arsenals
North and east of the joint base, the state’s ordnance work concentrates in two more installations. Picatinny Arsenal, in Morris County, is the Army’s center for armament research and engineering, and it employs roughly 6,000 people, including about 3,900 civilians and more than a thousand on-site contractors who develop and sustain the munitions the services carry into the field. Naval Weapons Station Earle, in Monmouth County, loads ordnance for the Atlantic Fleet across some 11,000 acres from a pier that extends more than two miles into Sandy Hook Bay. Both send technical personnel overseas to support fleet operations and weapons work, and the civilians among them fall within Defense Base Act coverage when they go.
The manufacturing corridor and the port
The private side of that economy runs the length of the state. L3Harris operates a major Clifton facility building electronic-warfare suites, Lockheed Martin runs a Moorestown campus of roughly 3,000 employees anchored in Aegis Combat System work, and BAE Systems, Marotta Controls, and Kearfott add generations of guidance and control manufacturing, with Howmet Aerospace, Aerojet Rocketdyne, and Airborne Systems extending the base into South Jersey. Taken together the sector is not small: the Defense Department directed roughly $9.4 billion to New Jersey in fiscal year 2023, spread across some 7,091 defense contractors and more than 70,000 defense-sector jobs. The state is a maritime one as well, anchored by the Port of New York and New Jersey at the Port Newark-Elizabeth complex, which is why Longshore experience runs deep in the local bar. For claims purposes, a New Jersey resident’s Defense Base Act matter is administered through the Department of Labor’s New York district office, which covers New Jersey along with New York, and a lawyer who knows that office holds a practical edge.
What Weakens a New Jersey Contractor’s Claim
A Defense Base Act claim can be sound on the merits and still founder on the way it is built, and knowing where they tend to fail helps a contractor guard against it.
Causation is the most common battleground. A carrier rarely denies that a worker is hurt; it argues instead that the injury did not arise from the overseas work, or that it is an old condition resurfacing rather than a new one. A knee that gave out on a job site becomes, in the carrier’s telling, a knee that was already failing, and rebutting that reframing takes medical evidence a contractor cannot usually assemble alone. Psychological claims draw the same treatment and more of it, with post-traumatic stress and related conditions from burn pit exposure and combat-zone service disputed as impossible to tie to a single event.
Deadlines are the quieter danger. The federal notice and filing periods are strict, and a claim denied or delayed over a missed date rarely recovers on sympathy. So is documentation: records from a field clinic overseas, a wage history that reflects the true earnings the benefit is measured against, and a clear account of how the injury happened all matter, and the gaps in them are where a carrier goes to work. None of this is aimed at any firm on the list; it is the terrain every one of them is hired to cross.
How to Choose a Defense Base Act Lawyer in New Jersey
Before signing anything, a New Jersey contractor can put a handful of questions to a firm:
- Ask how many Defense Base Act or Longshore claims the firm has actually carried, and whether it has argued one before an administrative law judge rather than settling every matter.
- Find out who runs the file day to day, the named attorney or a case team, and how the firm keeps a client informed from overseas or a distant time zone.
- Confirm the languages the office can work in, since this workforce is drawn from many countries.
- Put the fee arrangement in writing. On a Defense Base Act claim the attorney’s fee is generally the carrier’s responsibility once benefits are secured, not a cut of the worker’s compensation.
- Ask which Department of Labor district office will hear the claim, because that is where a contested matter is decided.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where are Defense Base Act claims for New Jersey residents handled?
They are administered by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs, and for New Jersey residents the department’s New York district office handles these matters. A contested claim moves from an informal conference with the district director to a formal hearing before an administrative law judge, then to the Benefits Review Board, and finally to a federal court of appeals.
Who is covered by the Defense Base Act?
The Act covers civilian employees working outside the United States under U.S. government contracts for military, national defense, or public works purposes, including workers on overseas U.S. bases and employees of welfare-service organizations for the armed forces. Coverage does not turn on citizenship, so qualifying foreign nationals and local nationals are covered as well.
What benefits does the Defense Base Act pay?
The Act pays for reasonable and necessary medical treatment, with the worker free to choose an authorized treating physician, and disability compensation that generally runs to two-thirds of the average weekly wage within statutory limits, in temporary or permanent and partial or total forms. It provides death benefits and burial costs for surviving dependents and vocational rehabilitation. It does not pay for pain and suffering.
How long does a New Jersey contractor have to file a claim?
Written notice to the employer is due within thirty days, and the formal claim, Form LS-203, is generally filed within one year of the injury or the last payment of compensation, or within two years of an occupational disease diagnosis that ties the illness to the work. A missed deadline can bar a claim outright, so the date is worth confirming with a lawyer without delay.
What is the zone of special danger?
It is a Defense Base Act doctrine that can make an injury compensable even when it happens off the clock. Because an overseas posting exposes a contractor to risks that home employment does not, harm suffered during recreation or an ordinary errand at a foreign site can still be traced to the conditions of the work.
What does a Defense Base Act lawyer cost a New Jersey contractor?
Generally nothing out of pocket. Under the Act the attorney’s fee is paid by the employer or its carrier when a claim succeeds, and taking a percentage of the worker’s benefits is not permitted, so the fee is the carrier’s responsibility rather than a share of the award.
