Intracoastal City Boat Accident
Lawyers

If you are a crew member on a boat or barge and have been injured in an accident out of Intracoastal City, Louisiana during the course of your employment, you are protected by different laws that those who work on land. Maritime workers are protected by specific maritime law, and the Intracoastal City Boat Accident Lawyers of Domengeaux Wright Roy & Edwards can help you navigate these laws and obtain the benefits you are entitled.

The four most common laws are The Jones Act, Maintenance and Cure, Unseaworthiness Doctrine and the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act. The Jones Act is a federal law, enacted by Congress in 1920, and it provides benefits and rights to those who qualify as seamen who are injured while working on a vessel, ship, boat or barge.

Do not assume you are not a Jones Act seaman, these laws are complex, but generally you must contribute to the operation of the vessel and spend at least 30 percent of your work aboard the ship. Contact our Intracoastal City Jones Act Lawyers to discuss your injury and the Jones Act benefits that are available to you if you have been injured.

The Jones Act provides for a process to file a claim and receive compensation for injuries from employers. Seamen have to prove negligence, either of the employer, fellow crewmen, or of equipment on the vessel as causing the injury. However, in a Jones Act claim, the plaintiff only must prove that the employer’s negligence played any part in the plaintiff’s injuries, however small. Damages under the Jones Act can include:

• Past and future medical expenses
• Past and future lost income
• Past and future pain and suffering

A family member can file a lawsuit on behalf of seaman if there has been a death as the result of negligence.

Under the Unseaworthiness Doctrine of General Maritime Law, if the ship, its equipment or its crewmembers are inadequate and a seaman is injured, the vessel is considered unseaworthy. The ship owner is responsible for the damages under this law, if the owner of the vessel is a different entity than the employer.

Every seaman who is injured or becomes ill while in the service of his vessel has the right under Federal Maritime Law to “maintenance and cure.”

“Maintenance” is a daily living allowance paid to a seaman while he is recovering from his injury or illness. Maintenance payments continue until a seaman has reached maximum medical improvement or until he is fit to return to duty at his previous level.

“Cure” is the term used for medical expenses associated with a seaman’s injury or illness. These expenses may include doctor and hospital bills, therapy expenses, nursing bills, MRI and CT scans, wheelchairs, diagnostic testing, pain clinics, transportation costs to and from the doctor, and other medical-related expenses. An injured seaman has the right choose his own doctor. The right to cure continues until the seaman has reached maximum medical improvement.

For those who don’t qualify as seamen but who work on docks, in shipyards, shipping terminals and ports near navigable waters, due to the dangerous nature of your work, you are covered by the Longshoreman and Harbor Workers Compensation Act.