PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Options for Recovery When Injuries Happen While Working at Sea

Working as a seaman, deckhand, fisherman, tugboat sailor, processor, or ferry worker is hazardous. Private and commercial vessels are rife with possible hazards, and injuries can happen at any time.

2010-09-23
September 23, 2010 (Press-News.org) Working as a seaman, deckhand, fisherman, tugboat sailor, processor, or ferry worker is hazardous. Private and commercial vessels are rife with possible hazards, and injuries can happen at any time. In fact, per capita, jobs on the water are the most dangerous ones in the world, resulting in more fatalities than other industries. Though many lose their lives in maritime-related accidents each year, countless others are injured, some of them enduring permanent pain, disfigurement or being unable to return to the job they love.

If you have been injured while working on a crab boat, trawler, tugboat, fishing vessel, processor, seiner, oil response vessel, construction barge, oil platform, gillnetters, dredge, supply ship or other type of vessel, you have legal rights. Your rights and legal options will depend upon the severity of your injuries and the cause behind them.

How Do Injuries Occur?
- Injuries at sea happen for many different reasons. Some of these include:
- Long shifts without adequate rest periods
- Negligent behavior of fellow crew members
- Rough seas, high winds and other inclement weather conditions
- Being struck by or becoming entangled in winch or crane cables
- Repetitive motion trauma, particularly to wrists and shoulders
- Lack of adequate training
- Heavy machinery
- Slippery and icy decks
- Becoming entangled in fishing nets and other gear
- Sliding materials on deck
- Defective or faulty equipment
- Handling heavy cargo

What Legal Options Are Available?

There are three main legal theories that provide compensation, payment of medical expenses and other monetary recovery for men and women injured while working at sea. They are:
- The Jones Act -- a federal law providing for payment of monetary damages, pain and suffering, medical expenses, lost wages, vocational rehabilitation costs, educational expenses, lost future wages (earning capacity) and loss of enjoyment of life (could possibly include claims for loss of companionship and consortium filed by a spouse). To recover under the Jones Act, a crewman must establish he was injured by his employer's negligence.
- Maintenance and cure -- most injured seaman who are injured or becomes seriously ill while at work on a seafaring vessel have the right to a daily living allowance (until such time as they reach a point of maximum medical improvement), select their own physician for treatment and medical assessment, and have their reasonable and necessary medical expenses paid until maximum medical cure has been reached.
- The Unseaworthiness doctrine -- the remedies provided under this doctrine are very similar to those offered by the Jones Act. A vessel owner owes each crewman a duty to provide a seaworthy vessel and a safe place to work. Unseaworthiness may be caused by many different conditions including faulty or unsafe equipment, improper manning of a vessel, unsafe procedures, a lack of training and more.

If you or a loved one has suffered a serious injury while at work on the water, you should contact an experienced maritime injury attorney in your area. Doing so will give you more information about your legal options and is an invaluable step toward protecting your rights.

Article provided by Beard, Stacey, Trueb & Jacobsen, L.L.P.
Visit us at www.atsealawyer.com


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Traffic Violations Can Cause Car Accidents, Regardless of Who Is Driving

2010-09-23
For all their fame and wealth, celebrities often face the same problems as the rest of us. However, some of these problems - even something as small as a traffic ticket - can seem larger than life for those whose lives are viewed through the lens of media scrutiny. And while negative publicity can certainly damage someone's reputation, the fact is that many famous people receive special treatment from law enforcement. Lohan In Trouble Again For example, authorities recently stopped actress Lindsay Lohan when she failed to stop at a stop sign while driving. Rather ...

New Jersey Bankruptcy Filings Increase Over Last Year

2010-09-23
Amid some promising signs of economic recovery, Bankruptcy filings are heading in a less promising direction. Record numbers of businesses and individuals are filing for Bankruptcy in New Jersey and around the country. The U.S. Bankruptcy Court reports that, in the 12 months ending August 2010, New Jersey bankruptcies increased compared to the year before: - Consumer bankruptcies increased by 6,881 (more than 20 percent) - Business bankruptcies increased by 23 (just under 2 percent) - Chapter 7 Bankruptcy filings increased by 6,229 (more than 25 percent) - Chapter 13 ...

New York Lawmakers Increase Drunk Driving Penalties With Leandra's Law

2010-09-23
Tragic cases often inspire new legislation. When 11-year-old Leandra Rosado was killed late last year when she was riding in a car with a drunk driver, New York lawmakers wasted no time in passing a law in her name, in the hopes of preventing similar future incidents. Leandra's Law makes it a felony for anyone with a blood alcohol content level of .08 or higher to drive with a child 15 or younger in the car, punishable by up to four years in prison. Under the law, if a child passenger is seriously injured by an intoxicated driver, the driver faces up to a 15 year sentence. ...

CSA 2010: Increasing Safety Through Improved Trucking Regulations

2010-09-23
Because commercial vehicle crashes are still far too common, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has been actively seeking ways to be more proactive about safety monitoring. The result of the agency's efforts is an initiative called Comprehensive Safety Analysis 2010. Prior to CSA 2010, the odds of a company being subjected to any meaningful onsite compliance review were slim. Due to a lack of staffing and the high levels of paperwork required, each year FMCSA officials have been able to conduct compliance reviews on less than 2 percent of the motor carriers ...

The Dangers of Peer-to-Peer Sharing

2010-09-23
Matthew White admits he was surfing the Internet for pornography two years ago -- not a crime for a then-20-year-old American male. However, CBS reports that White downloaded child pornography onto his computer; he says he did so accidentally while looking for college aged women on LimeWire. LimeWire is a peer-to-peer (P2P) sharing network that allows users to share files, including music, movies, games and pictures, with one another. White claims that when he discovered the files he had accidentally downloaded, he quickly erased them, saying that the child pornography ...

Accidental Child Pornography Download Can Lead to Jail Time

2010-09-23
Using peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing like Limewire can be an extremely risky endeavor. There are the obvious risks of engaging in copyright infringement or becoming a victim of identity theft, but more and more people have complained that they have accidentally downloaded dangerous material - like child pornography - which was disguised as something more innocuous. This has caused a legal problem for 22-year-old Matthew White of California, who now faces a possible 20 years in prison for having images of child porn buried in his hard drive. White claims that he tried ...

Senator Thompson's Personal Injury Legislation: The Real Story

2010-09-23
New York State Senator Antoine Thompson recently introduced legislation designed to widen the scope of what is considered a "serious injury" for purposes of bringing a personal injury claim. The law would be somewhat retroactive in nature, covering not just future claims, but any suits pending at the time of its passage. The timing of his proposal has been criticized by some, however, since it comes on the heels of his own personal injury lawsuit. Timing is a Coincidence In March of 2007, Senator Thompson was involved in an auto accident in which he suffered deep ...

Positive News for New York Drivers Regarding Insurance Surcharge

2010-09-23
Automobile accidents in New York may not be as costly for insurance policy holders, thanks to recent legislation signed by Governor David Patterson. The new law amends Section 2335 of the Insurance Law, which limits insurance companies from levying surcharges on a policyholder after an auto accident involving property damage. Section 2335 now prohibits insurers from raising auto premiums after an accident, unless the amount of property damage exceeds $2,000. The prior threshold was $1,000 and was in effect since 1991. Inflation and increasing repair costs made exceeding ...

Hazards of Hard Work: Common Construction Accidents

2010-09-23
Every year, the construction industry ranks as one of the most dangerous in which to work. Construction workers stand on top of buildings and go underground; they operate heavy machinery and handheld power tools; they work with electricity and they work with water; they work on inclines, slants and slopes; they dig holes and fill them in; and construction workers perform many other dangerous tasks on a day-to-day basis. The Hazards of Falling The federal government's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) states that "falls are the leading cause of fatalities ...

A Call to Require an Approved Boater Safety Course

2010-09-23
New York State offers a wide variety of spectacular waterways. For families and outdoor enthusiasts, it's a virtual paradise; however, in recent times New Yorkers have witnessed tragedy on the waters, and the incidents are causing some citizens to call for more stringent boater safety regulations. While the holidays and beautiful weekend weather trigger spikes in boating traffic, they also trigger heightened concern for boater safety. In July 2010, during the Independence Day holiday weekend, the New York Harbor was the scene of a tragic accident. Eight people, including ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

iRECODE: A new computational method that brings clarity to single-cell analysis

New NUS-MOH study: Singapore’s healthcare sector carbon emissions 18% lower than expected, a milestone in the city-state’s net zero journey

QUT scientists create material to turn waste heat into clean power

Major new report sets out how to tackle the ‘profound and lasting impact’ of COVID-19 on cardiovascular health

Cosmic crime scene: White dwarf found devouring Pluto-like icy world

Major report tackles Covid’s cardiovascular crisis head-on

A third of licensed GPs in England not working in NHS general practice

ChatGPT “thought on the fly” when put through Ancient Greek maths puzzle

Engineers uncover why tiny particles form clusters in turbulent air

GLP-1RA drugs dramatically reduce death and cardiovascular risk in psoriasis patients

Psoriasis linked to increased risk of vision-threatening eye disease, study finds

Reprogramming obesity: New drug from Italian biotech aims to treat the underlying causes of obesity

Type 2 diabetes may accelerate development of multiple chronic diseases, particularly in the early stages, UK Biobank study suggests

Resistance training may improve nerve health, slow aging process, study shows

Common and inexpensive medicine halves the risk of recurrence in patients with colorectal cancer

SwRI-built instruments to monitor, provide advanced warning of space weather events

Breakthrough advances sodium-based battery design

New targeted radiation therapy shows near-complete response in rare sarcoma patients

Does physical frailty contribute to dementia?

Soccer headers and brain health: Study finds changes within folds of the brain

Decoding plants’ language of light

UNC Greensboro study finds ticks carrying Lyme disease moving into western NC

New implant restores blood pressure balance after spinal cord injury

New York City's medical specialist advantage may be an illusion, new NYU Tandon research shows

Could a local anesthetic that doesn’t impair motor function be within reach?

1 in 8 Italian cetacean strandings show evidence of fishery interactions, with bottlenose and striped dolphins most commonly affected, according to analysis across four decades of data and more than 5

In the wild, chimpanzees likely ingest the equivalent of several alcoholic drinks every day

Warming of 2°C intensifies Arctic carbon sink but weakens Alpine sink, study finds

Bronze and Iron Age cultures in the Middle East were committed to wine production

Indian adolescents are mostly starting their periods at an earlier age than 25 years ago

[Press-News.org] Options for Recovery When Injuries Happen While Working at Sea
Working as a seaman, deckhand, fisherman, tugboat sailor, processor, or ferry worker is hazardous. Private and commercial vessels are rife with possible hazards, and injuries can happen at any time.