Your Maritime Lawyer knows that Maritime Law Is Different.

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Whether you are on the water for work or pleasure, an injury or illness can ruin your day. Any activity on waterways falls under maritime law. This means that special rules and laws apply when you bring your injury, illness, or wrongful death claim. Call to speak to a maritime attorney today about your potential claim. We get results and we have knowledge of all aspects of the maritime industry, whether commercial or recreational. Select a link under Maritime Law for more information on your particular issue.

Maritime law is a distinct body of law which governs maritime questions and offenses. It is a body of private international law governing the relationships between private entities which operate vessels on the oceans. It is distinguished from the Law of the Sea, which is a body of public international law dealing with navigational rights, mineral rights, jurisdiction over coastal waters and international law governing relationships between nations.

Many people who work at sea have a wide variety of maritime questions relating to the laws that protect them while they are working. The primary law that protects people working at sea is the Jones Act, which is a federal law that protects those who work on all sea craft as well as those who work on off shore drilling rigs that are able to be relocated and are not anchored permanently to the seabed. This law is all encompassing for those who work on boats, and all officers, crewmen, deckhands and everyone else on all kinds of vessels are covered under its protection.

A frequent maritime question is “Are the Jones Act and Worker's Compensation the same thing?” The answer is no. Because the dangers of working at sea are much higher on a regular basis than those of working on land, there is a separate law entirely that covers this area of employment injury. While workers comp claims are received, governed, and awarded by the individual states, the Jones Act is a federal law covering all who work aboard American vessels. This law entitles workers to very high settlement values in cases of worker injury where the employer is found to be at fault. This is because of the increased dangers of working at sea. While a negligent employer will often be the cause of injury on land, a negligent employer at sea can often cause death due to the dangerous nature of working at sea in the first place. Workplace safety must be held to a very rigorous standard and, when it is not, the Jones Act is the law that ensures employers must be accountable for being lax in that regard.

Maritime questions also include people asking what kinds of payments are made under the Jones Act. Maintenance and Cure are the two types of payments. Maintenance is the amount for covering basic food and shelter and is always the smaller of the two amounts. Cure, on the other hand, can be inclusive of all medical treatments and associated costs spanning from the injury and can reach vast amounts depending on the extent of the injury and the amount of rehabilitation needed to repair it. Another Maritime question is in regard to how fast a claim should be made. The statute of limitations on maritime injury is three years; however, in order to protect yourself from accidentally waiving any of your rights or potential to claim, a lawyer should be consulted as soon as possible after any injury at sea.

The final Maritime question is in regards to the usefulness of hiring a maritime lawyer. The fact is, it is invaluable, as the laws that are detailed by the Jones Act are very specific and very complicated. It can be absolutely vital to have someone who is familiar with all of the intricacies of this area of the law in order to ensure that you are adequately protected and receive the compensation you deserve if you have been injured while at sea.

Seamen injured aboard ship have three possible sources of compensation: the principle of maintenance and cure, the doctrine of unseaworthiness, and the Jones Act. The principle of maintenance and cure requires a shipowner to both pay for an injured seaman's medical treatment until maximum medical recovery (MMR) is obtained and provide basic living expenses until completion of the voyage, even if the seaman is no longer aboard ship. The seaman is entitled to maintenance and cure as of right, unless he was injured due to his own willful gross negligence. It is similar in some ways to workers' compensation. The doctrine of unseaworthiness makes a shipowner liable if a seaman is injured because the ship, or any appliance of the ship, is "unseaworthy," meaning defective in some way. The Jones Act allows a sailor, or one in privity to him, to sue the shipowner in tort for personal injury or wrongful death, with trial by jury. The Jones Act incorporates the Federal Employers Liability Act (FELA), which governs injuries to railway workers, and is similar to the Coal Miners Act. A shipowner is liable to a seaman in the same way a railroad operator is to its employees who are injured due to the negligence of the employer. The statute of limitation is three years.

Not every worker injured onboard a vessel is a "seaman" entitled to the protections offered by the Jones Act, doctrine of unseaworthiness, and principle of maintenance and cure. To be considered a seaman, a worker must generally spend 30 percent or more of his working hours onboard either a specific vessel or a fleet of vessels under common ownership or control. With few exceptions, all non-seamen workers injured over navigable waters are covered instead by the Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act, a separate form of workers' compensation.