If you suffer an injury while on the job, you may think that any personal injury or workers’ compensation attorney can help you seek compensation for your losses. This simply is not true, especially if you work in the maritime industry. Maritime law is not an area that all attorneys in the state of Louisiana have experience with, so it is essential to do your due diligence when looking for legal counsel to help you.
Whether your work takes you to the docks, an oil rig or a vessel of sorts, these environments are dangerous to be in, and injuries are known to happen. Employers do have a duty to keep these places of work as safe as possible by following industry regulations, enforcing safety protocols and supplying safety equipment, among other things. Still, things happen, and people get hurt, or worse. Injured maritime workers do have the right to seek relief, but how they go about doing that is different than it is for most everyone else.
Various federal laws are in place to protect maritime workers and their families, and these protections go beyond what is offered through basic workers’ compensation laws. The Jones Act, for example, not only requires your employer to cover your losses — such as medical expenses, transportation costs and lost wages — but it also allows you to file claims against your employer if employer negligence contributed to your losses. This is big because with regular workers’ compensation, typically you are unable to sue your employer and receive workers’ comp benefits. There are very few select reasons why one might be able to file civil claims against an employer and also claim workers’ comp.
If you have suffered a maritime injury, who you have in your corner matters. Maritime law is complex, and filing claims following an injury is not necessarily easy or straightforward. While working through the system can prove challenging, with the right assistance, injured maritime workers in Louisiana can take the proper steps to seek maximum relief for their losses. To learn more about this topic, please take a moment and visit our firm’s website.