 |
 |
|
Commercial fishing or recreational
boating accidents can be devastating, career ending and or fatal.
The underwriter of any vessel will be immediately able to obtain
statements of witnesses who are critical to your case. It
is important to hire an attorney immediately to investigate your
accident and to obtain corroborating statements from witnesses on
the vessel. Often crew members will disappear. Either
they will move on to other vessels or simply return to their land
of origin. Therefore, the taking of statements when your vessel
is in port is critical. Please try and notify your attorney
of all possible eye witnesses who observed the condition which caused
your accident so an investigator may obtain statements from all
possible witnesses while they are in port. Even though the
burden of proof in a maritime claim is feather weight, it is important
to start out with a strong case by having proof of liability through
witness statements. Once liability is sewed up, then it is
important to proceed in order to prove your damages. This
typically involves the loss of past or future earnings that a seamen
otherwise would have earned "but for" the accident. This could
include future anticipated contracts of employment with this or
other vessels, or other work in the private sector. In the
meantime, regardless of liability, the injured seaman is entitled
to recover maintenance and cure regardless of fault. This
shall continue until the seaman reaches maximum medical improvement
according to his or her treating physician.
 Often
crews are required to work under onerous and hazardous conditions
in hopes of increasing the vessel's revenues. These conditions
can lead to serious injuries. If you were injured because
of the negligence of an employer or operator, or because of an unseaworthy
condition aboard the vessel, you may have a Jones Act claim which
would entitle you to the recovery of maintenance (temporary lost
wages) and cure (medical care), and additionally general damages.
Your employer or the vessel's owners are required to provide these
benefits to you. Typically an injured crew member is entitled
to recover his wages, medical expenses and damages for pain and
suffering and other general damages providing one has been injured
while on duty or during the course of employment. The recoverable
general and special damages to one who is injured in a commercial
fishing or recreational boating accident may generally be the same
as one who is injured in a car accident. You are entitled
to recover general damages for your pain and suffering, inconvenience,
loss of opportunity to enjoy life, loss of and including the companionship
of family members, loss of services, emotional and psychological
distress, death, disability, permanent injuries, dismemberment,
and all special damages, such as, medical bills, wage loss, future
wages, diminution in earning potential, and all other out of pocket
expenses.
 Often
a Jones Act claim may be confused with a worker's compensation or
Labor and Industries Claims. You should consult a lawyer immediately
to determine filing deadlines and other claim filing requirements
to determine if your claim is one of worker's compensation or one
under the Jones Act from which you are entitled to recover maintenance
and cure. Recreational boating accidents are governed by a
myriad of laws including common law negligence, the Rules of the
Road governing inland navigable waters, county and state laws, and
perhaps municipal laws. Often the motor vehicle Rules of the
Road are applied by analogy to recreational boating. Please
consult an attorney for these nuances in the laws governing recreational
boating.
Robert Kornfeld handles both
commercial fishing and recreational boating claims as explained
above.
|
