Jones Act
The Jones Act is a Federal law that covers specific types of maritime workers in Oregon and throughout the USA. Making a Jones Act claim provides maritime workers injury-related medical benefits as well as protects the injured maritime worker's right to sue their employer for negligence or unsafe conditions. The Jones Act is more for the sailers, people who are actually on ships vs. harbor workers who have their own set of protective laws.
Seafarers (also referred to as seamen or sailors) who are injured while at sea are entitled to maintenance and cure from their employers or shipowners.
Maintenance is an injured seafarer's right to day-to-day living expenses.
Cure is the seafarer's right to medical costs.
Employers and unions cannot contract out of a seafarer's right to maintenance and cure.
An injured seafarer shouldn't have to pay for their medical expenses for an injury that ocurred while in service to their employer. However, there can be circumstances where an employer tries to get out of paying. An undisclosed pre-existing injury or medical condition are one type of pathway that might lead to a circumstance where the employer might argue the employee contributed to the situation which lead to the injury.
The amount you receive can vary greatly, and any union membership may additionally determine the amount of money you can receive under maintenance rather than your actual cost of living.
§30104. Personal injury to or death of seamen
A seaman injured in the course of employment or, if the seaman dies from the injury, the personal representative of the seaman may elect to bring a civil action at law, with the right of trial by jury, against the employer. Laws of the United States regulating recovery for personal injury to, or death of, a railway employee apply to an action under this section.
If your injury was caused by improperly maintained ship, then you must prove Unseaworthiness:
A shipowner has the duty to a seaman employed on the ship to furnish a vessel and appurtenances that are reasonably fit for their use. This includes maintaining a ship's equipment in proper operating condition. The failure of a piece of equipment under proper and expected use is sufficient to establish unseaworthiness.
A vessel is unseaworthy if the vessel, or any of its parts or equipment, is not reasonably fit for its intended purpose [or if its crew is not reasonably adequate or competent to perform the work assigned].
Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act
This is another Federal Law that is available to workers in Oregon and throughout the USA.
Like the Jones Act, this law protects workers injured on the job but not at sea, whether in shipyards, harbors, shipping terminals, building or repairing ships, construction in water ways, wharfs, or docks, unloading or loading ships or in those areas.
The Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act provides medical expenses and lost wages to the worker allowing them to recover and return to work or for seriously injured it will provide for vocational rehabilitation services to employees disabled from on the job injuries. This law also provides for survivor benefits in case of death.
The Death on the High Seas Act
When the death of a seaman is caused by a wrongful act, neglect, or defect occurring on the high seas beyond 3 nautical miles from the shore of the United States, the personal representative of the decedent may bring a civil action in admiralty against the person or vessel responsible. Only a spouse, parent, child, or dependent relative can bring this civil action.
Contributory negligence of the decedent is not a bar to recovery but it may reduce the amount recovered accordingly.
Teton Offshorefishing
