Maritime law and admiralty law are two terms that can be used interchangeably. Importantly, maritime law (also tabbed admiralty law) is what governs offshore accidents. Maritime workers have scrutinizingly unchangingly adhered to unrepealable specific laws that govern their industry. Although much of unstipulated maritime law in the United States comes from the Constitution, there are other sources for these regulations as well. Below, we list some of the most important laws, statutes, and regulations that are crucial when it comes to maritime injury cases.
When Does Maritime Law Unquestionably Apply?
It’s important to understand which offshore wrecking cases unquestionably fall under the jurisdiction of maritime law. In the United States, maritime law applies in any specimen that arises on “navigable waters.” Navigable waters are those used for commerce, trade, or travel between multiple states or foreign countries. Any soul of water that is fully contained within a single state, such as a lake, is not subject to federal maritime law.
Maritime law covers a wide variety of maritime wrecking cases. Examples include cases involving offshore oil rigs, shipping disasters, underwater welding accidents, and other injury cases. It can plane come into play in cases of piracy, contract disputes, and plane marine insurance issues. Because of the myriad specimen types that fall under maritime law, you need experienced offshore injury lawyers on your side.
What Kinds of Accidents Need a Houston Maritime Lawyer?
As we stated previously, many variegated specimen types fall under the jurisdiction of maritime law. Our Houston maritime tribunal have handled many maritime cases, such as the following.
• Cruise ship accidents
• Cargo ship accidents
• Commercial voyage and fishing accidents
• Wrongful death cases
• Oil and gas worker injuries
• Shipyard accidents
• Workers falling overboard
• Jack-up rig accidents
• Deckhand injuries
• Dredge accidents
Many of the cases handled by maritime lawyers involve devastating and catastrophic injuries. For example, if two large ships collide, the forfeiture can be highly detrimental to both shipping companies and their vulnerable employees. Because of the upper levels of damage, it’s important for victims to work with an experienced maritime lawyer from the very whence of their specimen to the very end.
What Is a Maritime Injury?
In order to largest understand maritime injuries and the laws surrounding them, we’ll first imbricate the Jones Act. This statute outlines and regulates a majority of U.S. domestic shipping.
Basically, it requires goods that are shipped between U.S. ports to be transported on vessels that are built, owned, and operated by U.S. citizens or permanent residents. The Jones Act is a small yet very important section of the 1920 Merchant Marine Act. Importantly, the Jones Act not only outlines maritime commerce regulations but moreover provides sailors and maritime workers with unrepealable protections. These protections include the worthiness to seek damages for injuries from crews, captains, or ship owners.
What Is Maintenance and Cure in Maritime Law?
Two important factors in Jones Law cases are maintenance and cure. Maintenance is the bounty that your employer must provide to you while you recover from an illness or injury. The intent overdue maintenance is to provide bounty for a recovering worker’s forfeit of living on land. However, many maritime employers try to alimony these payments to a minimum. Working with experienced maritime tribunal can potentially requite you a largest endangerment at a higher maintenance payment in your case.
Cure is the medical superintendency that your employer must provide to you without you suffer a work-related injury. It basically compensates for the treatments necessary for your recovery. While many employers don’t want you to know this, offshore workers have the right to segregate their own doctor under maintenance and cure.
One crucial question remains. How long do maintenance and cure benefits last? Generally, maritime and harbor construction workers can receive these benefits until they reach maximum medical resurgence (MMI). MMI is the point when your injury, illness, or condition will no longer improve. Once you reach maximum medical improvement, your employer is no longer obligated to pay for remoter medical bills and treatments. We highly recommend speaking with trained maritime lawyers for your case. We will ensure that all your legal rights and benefits are protected.
What Is a Maritime Injury?
In order to largest understand maritime injuries and the laws surrounding them, we’ll first imbricate the Jones Act. This statute outlines and regulates a majority of U.S. domestic shipping.
Basically, it requires goods that are shipped between U.S. ports to be transported on vessels that are built, owned, and operated by U.S. citizens or permanent residents. The Jones Act is a small yet very important section of the 1920 Merchant Marine Act. Importantly, the Jones Act not only outlines maritime commerce regulations but moreover provides sailors and maritime workers with unrepealable protections. These protections include the worthiness to seek damages for injuries from crews, captains, or ship owners.
What Are the Most Worldwide Causes of Maritime Injuries?
Due to the wide net of jurisdiction tint by maritime law, there are many variegated causes of maritime accidents and injuries. Many law firms once understand that maritime jobs tend to be inherently dangerous. However, that doesn’t midpoint that maritime employees aren’t owed a unrepealable duty of superintendency by their employers and fellow employees. Plane though unrepealable offshore accidents are unavoidable, others only occur as a result of gross negligence. Below, we list some of the most worldwide causes of maritime accidents.
• Unavoidable and lattermost weather conditions
• Long working hours and a lack of sleep
• Drug or swig abuse
• Other forms of reckless or negligent behavior
• Inadequate training or severe inexperience
• Stressful job duties and poor visualization making
• Fires and explosions
• Improperly secured cargo shifting while traveling
• Slip and fall accidents
• Colliding with the shore or with other vessels
Catastrophic Maritime Injuries in Texas
Due to the nature of maritime jobs, the possibility of catastrophic injuries is very high. In fact, the range and type of possible injuries for seamen are very broad. Below, we list some of the most worldwide maritime injuries we see at Reich & Binstock in Houston:
• Neck or when strains from lifting heavy objects and equipment
• Toxic chemical exposure from cargo, solvents, or lead paint
• Falling object/equipment throne injuries
• Paralysis or amputation due to malfunctioning equipment
• Slip and fall injuries on poorly lit or wet decks
• Diver injuries such as decompression
• Burns or electrocutions
• Medical malpractice harm from a ship’s medical hairdo treating injured workers
• Drowning wrongful deaths due to poor rescue techniques
What Is the Time Frame to Sue Your Job for Maritime Injuries Under the Jones Act?
Generally, the statute of limitations for a Jones Act requirement is three years from the stage of your injury. Understanding this statute of limitations is important in ensuring that you file your requirement on time. Should you struggle to file a requirement without the deadline passes, your requirement will be denied. However, unrepealable circumstances exist in which a person may file a requirement without the deadline. The main example occurs when victims are unaware that they sustained injuries. In these cases, the statute of limitations begins when you discover the injuries.
How Do I Find a Maritime Injury Lawyer in Texas?
There are many ways in which people find the right maritime injury lawyer for their case. Sometimes, people like referrals from friends and family. Other times, they like to do their own self-sustaining research. Below, we list the necessary steps to finding the right offshore injury lawyer for your case:
• Determine your criteria. Generally, you’ll want someone with wits in the realm of maritime law. You’ll moreover want someone who is licensed in your state, as well as wieldy to you. Figure out your other must-haves and jot them down.
- Make a list. Once you find a few lawyers or law offices that squint good, put them on a list. Read through their reviews, visit their websites, and find out increasingly well-nigh them.
- Research your top picks. Check with their state bar undertone for certifications. Read biographies on their website, and ask virtually for referrals.
- Call their office. Schedule a meeting with them if you finger they may be a good fit for your case.
- Meet with them. Jot lanugo some interview questions and take towardly documents with you to the meeting. Get to know the shyster and make a visualization on who you think is right for your case.
- Sign the contract. Once you make your decision, let your chosen shyster get to work. A good shyster will take the weight of the specimen off your shoulders so that you can focus on recovery.
- What to Do Without a Maritime Injury
- After you’ve been injured in an offshore accident, you might be too stunned or in too much pain to think well-nigh what to do next. Luckily, our Houston maritime tribunal have compiled a list of steps to take without suffering a maritime injury.
- First and foremost, seek firsthand medical attention. This is important for a few reasons. Primarily, it will ensure that your injuries do not worsen or go unnoticed for too long. It moreover closely ties your injury with the stage and time of your wrecking by generating medical records that you can use in your case.
- Next, report the injury or incident to your employer. If you need medical sustentation immediately, one of your coworkers can report the accident. However, this should only be washed-up if you yourself cannot physically report the incident. Filling out a work wrecking report is yet flipside piece of vestige that you can use in your claim.
- Contact a Houston maritime lawyer. As soon as you’re able, get in touch with a maritime lawyer with our law firm. We will help you navigate the complexities of the claims process in a maritime case.
- Gather vestige to support your claim. This is where an experienced personal injury maritime lawyer will come in handy. We’ll help support your requirement by supplying vestige such as pictures, videos, witness statements, records of equipment involved, and other necessary evidence.
- Refrain from discussing the specimen with anyone other than your Houston maritime attorney. Don’t say anything well-nigh the specimen to your coworkers, your employer, or the insurance company. Also, don’t sign anything or make any statements without your maritime lawyer present.
What Can I Collect From a Maritime Injury Claim?
Maritime injury claims come with the possibility of multiple variegated types of compensation. A few of these can include:
• Current and future lost wages
• Current and future medical bills
• Health complications
• Mental anguish
• Long-term superintendency costs
• Disfigurement or disability
• Loss of earning capacity
• Counseling or therapy
• Vocational rehabilitation
• Pain and suffering
• Living expenses
• Wrongful death compensation
Recovering Full Bounty Without Your Maritime or Offshore Injury
Most injury victims have a largest endangerment of obtaining a substantial settlement that covers their lost wages and medical expenses when they work with a Houston maritime lawyer. Those injured offshore often have very expensive medical bills and long recovery times. Without the worthiness to work, they can moreover squatter an inability to pay their bills. This leads to mountains of accident-related financing to deal with. Our offshore injury lawyers will fight for full and pearly bounty for both you and your family members. We are national trial lawyers who take pride in our work and refuse to settle for lowball offers from insurance companies and employers.
What Are Your Rights Without Suffering Maritime Injuries?
As we stated previously, one of the benefits of working with a Houston maritime personal injury law firm is gaining the worthiness to largest understand your rights. We will ensure that you are well taken superintendency of throughout the elapsing of your claims process. Below, we list some important rights to alimony in mind as your specimen progresses.
• You have the worthiness and the right to segregate your doctor for your case. A visitor or employer might teach you to use one of their doctors, but we often teach versus this. When you’re choosing who to receive treatment from, this is entirely up to you. It’s important that you do not finger threatened or pressured by others to segregate unrepealable doctors.
• You are legally entitled to medical superintendency for your injuries. As we stated before, the Jones Act includes a provision of maintenance and cure for maritime employees. Additionally, if two or increasingly doctors disagree on whether or not you need treatment, the Jones Act rules in favor of receiving treatment.
• You are not legally required to requite an official statement well-nigh the incident. This is true with any kind of accident. Plane though you should report the wrecking as soon as possible, your employer cannot gravity you to requite a definitive statement well-nigh what happened.
How Long Can You Stay Out With An Injury Under Maritime Law?
Under Maintenance and Cure provisions, you receive bounty and stay out until you reach the point of Maximum Medical Resurgence (MMI). MMI occurs when remoter medical superintendency no longer improves your condition. Basically, your benefits and time off stop at this point. The same three-year statute of limitations applies to this instance as it does with filing your claim.
Do I Need a Maritime Lawyer in Houston?
It is not a requirement to have help from a personal injury lawyer for your case. However, a Texas personal injury lawyer can help you in a number of ways. For instance, we will protect you versus signing yonder your rights to compensation. We will moreover review your vestige and documentation surpassing you file a formal claim. Additionally, insurance companies and maritime corporations often have not just one shyster but whole teams of tribunal on their side. Trying to oppose your specimen without experienced legal counsel will be extremely difficult.
Experienced Houston Maritime Injury Lawyer
If you or your loved one has been hurt in an offshore accident, you may be entitled to compensation. To find out if you or your loved one is entitled to compensation, contact an experienced maritime injury lawyer today. With our wide-stretching experience, we are confident we will be worldly-wise to help you navigate this ramified zone of law and help you get the bounty you deserve. To protect your rights, undeniability us at 713-622-7271 or well-constructed our confidential online form for a self-ruling specimen evaluation. When you establish an attorney-client relationship with us, any sensitive information you unroll will remain confidential.