If you’ve been injured in a tugboat accident, an experienced tugboat accident lawyer at Brais Law Firm exclusively represents employees who were injured while working. This line of work is physically demanding and dangerous. Crew members work long hours and encounter conditions which often put them at risk of injuries and sometimes death. Injuries and fatalities which most commonly occur on tugboats are caused by the following:
When an accident occurs, tugboat companies contact their insurers, who appoint lawyers to look after the interest of the employers and the insurance company. It is very important that if you were injured or a loved one lost his or her life in a tugboat accident, contact an experienced tugboat accident lawyer to work on your behalf.
Our tugboat accident lawyers have represented several injured workers on the job. Unfortunately, when investigating these types of claims, we often find that our clients’ accidents almost always could have been avoided if the tugboat companies had simply followed their internal safety policies and maritime safety regulations, provided sufficient and properly trained co-workers, and maintained tools and equipment in good working order. Fortunately, the law protects crew members and their families from the negligence of marine employers, co-workers and the unseaworthiness of the vessels they are required to work aboard.
The law entitles injured seamen to receive prompt and proper medical treatment at the employer’s expense and a daily living stipend. These benefits continue until a qualified doctor, not the employer or employer’s attorney, finds the injury has reached maximum medical improvement. Injured seamen are also entitled to compensation due to the accident for the physical and emotional pain and suffering experienced and lost wages the seaman sustained in the past and will likely sustain in the future.
Families of seaman who dies while working aboard tugboats are entitled to recover the loss of support, services, and guidance their loved ones would have provided. In addition, if the death occurred within state waters, the seaman’s estate is entitled to recover pre-death pain and suffering. Each case is different, and we recommend you contact an attorney experienced with tugboat accidents to advise you of your legal rights.
Tugboat accidents can result from a wide range of causes. Some tugboats are decades old, and they are desperately in need of maintenance and repairs. Some tugboats are brand new, but their captains and crewmembers lack the training to operate them safely. Then, of course, there is the risk of being hit by a recreational boater who is distracted or drunk at the helm.
Our tugboat accident lawyers represent crewmembers who have been injured in accidents involving all causes. This includes common causes of tugboat accidents such as:
As a tugboat crewmember, it is important to know if you qualify as a “seaman.” This term has a very specific – and important – meaning under the Jones Act. If you qualify as a seaman, you can file for maintenance and cure benefits regardless of how you got injured. In addition, you may be able to collect additional compensation if your employer is responsible for your injury.
Generally speaking, tugboat crewmembers qualify as seamen under the Jones Act. To qualify, you do not need to spend your days at sea. As long as you work onboard a vessel operating on navigable waters (i.e., a harbor, river, or marina), you should qualify for Jones Act compensation.
When seeking financial compensation under the Jones Act, the amount you can recover depends on two primary factors. These are: (i) the cause of the accident and (ii) the costs of your injury.
Maintenance and cure benefits are available to injured tugboat crewmembers under the Jones Act regardless of how they got injured (with only a few very limited exceptions). These “no-fault” benefits are intended to cover injured crewmembers’ medical bills and a portion of their lost wages.
While maintenance and cure benefits are helpful – and extremely important – they do not cover all of the costs of job-related injuries. Fortunately, the Jones Act also gives injured crewmembers the right to pursue negligence claims. If your employer was even “slightly” negligent in creating the dangerous situation that led to your injury, a tugboat accident attorney can help you seek full compensation for your medical needs, lost earnings, pain and suffering, and other losses.
When seeking financial compensation after a tugboat accident, there is a lot you need to know. For example, here are five little-known facts about tugboat crewmembers’ rights:
Many crewmembers believe they can only file a claim if someone else is responsible for their injuries. This is not the case. Even if you accidentally injured yourself at work, you are entitled to file a claim under the Jones Act.
As mentioned above, the Jones Act entitles injured tugboat crewmembers to maintenance and cure on a “no-fault” basis. This means you do not need proof that your employer is to blame. All you need is proof that you got injured on the job.
Another common misconception is that crewmembers cannot file claims when they have pre-existing conditions. While your employer (or its insurance company) may try to use your pre-existing condition against you, you still have every right to collect just compensation for your work-related injury.
Standard workers’ compensation benefits for land-based workers cover medical expenses, lost wages, and other out-of-pocket costs. While maintenance and cure benefits under the Jones Act provide somewhat similar coverage, filing a negligence claim under the Jones Act allows eligible crewmembers to recover additional compensation.
You can lose your rights under the Jones Act if you wait too long to file a claim. To ensure you don’t lose your rights, you should speak with a tugboat accident lawyer as soon as possible.
If you have experienced an injury, many lawyers will claim that they will be able to help you collect what you deserve, but when it comes to injuries on waterways or oceans, that may not be the case. Federal maritime law governs the outcomes of many cases that happen offshore, onshore, or on vessels. When you are working on a boat or in offshore or onshore operations related to various maritime industries, certain local laws, statutes, and case outcomes may not apply to your situation.
When a worker is classified as a “seaman,” barring a few exceptions, they will be covered by a number of overlapping laws and statutes. These include both Federal maritime law in addition to the Jones Act. The United States Supreme Court has ruled extensively on what laws apply to claims that stem from the work of “seamen” and have ruled that both maritime laws and any overlapping statutes from the Jones Act simultaneously apply.
The term “seaman” is classified in 46 U.S. Code Sec. 10313 as an individual who is engaged or employed in any capacity onboard a vessel, except sailing school instructors and students and scientific personnel. Working on a tugboat will generally lead to you being classified as a seaman, which in turn entitles you to the many protections outlined under Federal maritime law and the Jones Act.
It is important to work with a law firm that views you as more than just a number, but a unique client encountering their own individual circumstances. While there is no cookie-cutter approach to a tugboat injury case, the maritime lawyers at Brais Law Firm have decades of combined experience representing seamen like tugboat workers, crewmen, and other maritime workers who have been injured on the job.
If you are considering hiring an attorney, it is important to hire one who has a track record of winning claims and cases on behalf of their clients. You are entirely within your rights to ask an attorney how many cases they have taken like yours and how many of those they’ve won. Attorneys who do well and win cases for their clients are not shy about it.
Brais Law Firm has achieved the following results amongst other tens of millions of dollars:
We are more than happy to discuss our track record with you during your free initial consultation. You have no risk and no obligation during the consultation. At the time of the consultation, we will collect some basic information about your injuries and the related incident or accident that caused them. If we take your case, we may offer to do so on contingency, which means that we only get paid if we win. In that instance, you’ll pay nothing out-of-pocket, as our earnings are a portion of what we win in your case which will be agreed upon before getting started.
Making the decision to hire a lawyer is the first step toward building the strongest possible claim or case in your favor. Even when it is undeniable that the vessel manager or owner was negligent and because of their negligence, you were injured, you’ll still have to gather evidence to prove your damages prior to filing a claim.
Collecting compensation to which you are rightfully entitled requires the following:
An experienced tugboat accident lawyer at Brais Law Firm has the experience to protect your rights, the compassion to serve your needs, and the skills to obtain the compensation you deserve. Our firm’s primary office is located in Miami, FL, although we routinely handle claims throughout the state of Florida. To reach our lawyers call 305-416-2901 from within Florida, call 800-499-0551 from within the U.S., or click Contact Us to complete a form for a free evaluation of your case and to learn how the “AV” Preeminent, Multi-Million Dollar Advocates and Board Certified Maritime Attorneys with Brais Law Firm might be able to help you.
Your case will be handled by an experienced personal injury attorney who knows what it takes to get the results you deserve. The practitioners at our firm have over 70 years of collective trial experience. Our credentials and qualifications are extensive, including an “AV” Preeminent rating by Martindale-Hubbell and membership in the Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum. More importantly, we have a first-hand understanding of how insurance carriers operate because we represented clients insured with major insurance companies for nearly 20 years before we made a choice to change sides so that we could help the people who need us most – individuals just like you.
I highly recommend Brais Law Firm. Their professionalism and expertise were top notch. My slip and fall injury case involved a well known cruise ship and was nerve racking to me. They calmed all my fears and walked me through step by step. In the end they helped me obtain a favorable recovery. Look no further, call them with your…
Awesome team of legal professionals!! I can't thank Mr. Brais and his team enough for helping me through the worst experience of my life. Had it not been for their dedication to seeing things through. I would be in a very bad place. I highly recommend Brais Law firm.
Deaths on cruise ships are more common than most people realize. While the cruise lines work hard to avoid negative publicity following deaths onboard, statistics…
For experienced boaters and yacht captains, docking is second nature. But, for those who are less confident in their abilities, docking and undocking can be…
Boat collisions happen every day in harbors, bays, rivers and other bodies of water all over the world. While determining who is to blame will…
Florida has the most coastline out of any state in the contiguous United States, with nearly 8,500 miles of coastline on the Atlantic Ocean and…
On December 9th, 2019, the volcano on White Island, New Zealand, erupted while 47 tourists were visiting the Island at the time. Of those, 18…
A tragic boating accident in Biscayne Bay near Miami Beach took the life of Raul Menendez. Menendez of Hialeah, Florida and his friends chartered the…