Seamen, Maritime Employees Can Get Injury Compensation Via Jones Act Protections

29 Jun 2011 @ 9:51 AM

Seamen, Maritime Employees Can Get Injury Compensation Via Jones Act Protections

Many US people work every day in difficult, demanding and frequently perilous scenarios on our waters, whether on a ship or maybe even an offshore oil platform. But safety measures are supposed to be in place — and sometimes they aren’t. When this is the case, and maritime workers are wounded on the job, they must find how to revive fiscal steadiness to their lives. Frequently that means looking for protections under the Jones Act.

This 1920 law that is nearing its 100th anniversary is technically Jones Act 46 U.S.C, and it also could be called the Merchant Marine Act of 1920. But it’s more informally known simply as the Jones Act, since it was authored by Sen. Wesley Jones of the state of Washington . The law covers many sides of maritime commerce but includes protections for maritime workers, sailors, seamen and others who toil on America’s waters. If those workers are hurt, they can seek business restitution through the Jones Act.

Because of the Jones Act, injured seamen or the survivors of seamen who are killed at work have a legal right to pursue monetary recovery by a Jones Act claim. This claim can be pressed by a Jones Act lawsuit filed by an experienced injury lawyer or Jones Act attorney. And such an attorney or lawyer can be found at the longtime legal firm of Jim S. Adler & Associates, which has served thousands of Texas injury victims for over three decades.

The source of a Jones Act injury could be a lack of correct safety cares on board a ship or an offshore rig. It could be flawed or poorly maintained hardware on a ship or rig. It could be a generally dangerous environment on board. In any case, if there’s unseaworthiness of a ship or platform, or laxity of a owner, captain or crew, then the Jones Act can provide wounded employees the protection they require and deserve.

What are some sorts of vessels on which Jones Act injuries can occur? Within them are ferries, trawlers, tug boats, water taxis, supply boats, shrimp boats, barges, riverboats, semi-submersible vessels, tankers, drill ships, oil rigs and also jack-up rigs. Even if a worker was not killed or hurt on board such a ship, but in transport to it, then Jones Act coverage can apply.

Such protection is a wounded offshore worker’s legal right, yet on it’s own it’s not enough. A well-educated Jones Act lawyer must be engaged as an element of the method. This injury attorney or lawyer must be very capable in the Jones Act’s complexities and must be wary to modifications in the act, eg an in depth rewriting and re-codifying of it as late as 2006.

A Jones Act attorney should also act as a buffer or a protection between the injured maritime employee and others who don’t want her to get full and correct monetary restitution. That commonly includes bosses who dangle a fast settlement before a wounded employee, but without offering quite as much money as the hurt person is due under the Jones Act.

A Jones Act attorney can help a customer avoid this pitfall and instead pursue full and fair financial recovery. Such recovery is maritime workers’ legal priviledge under this law from past times which still holds resolutely in their favor today. When maritime injuries occur, the Jones Act — as it has been for over nine decades — is there to supply help.