Understanding Your Rights under the Jones Act
If you were injured as a seaman, you may be entitled to compensation under the Jones Act. In general, the Jones Act applies to work injury accidents on the high seas and navigable waters in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, or Arkansas. Our Jones Act lawyers want to understand your unique situation so we can provide guidance that will help you obtain a favorable result against one of the largest maritime companies in the world. If you were injured working as a seaman on a tugboat, barge, cargo ship, or another vessel, you should speak with an attorney for a free, confidential consultation regarding your Jones Act case.
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What is the Jones Act?
The Jones Act, under maritime law, protects any U.S. citizen working as a seaman who suffers injury or illness due to unseaworthiness or negligence aboard a vessel operating in navigable waters. The Merchant Marine Act of 1920, also known as the Jones Act, is a United States federal statute that regulates maritime commerce in U.S. waters and between U.S. ports.
The Jones Act offers relief to injured seamen in the maritime industry and ensures they receive the compensation they deserve for their injuries in a maritime lawsuit, also known as a “Jones Act claim.” If you are an eligible seaman or offshore worker and you qualify for benefits under the Jones Act, you must also prove that your work injury occurred at sea or while working as a harbor worker and that your employer was negligent somehow that led to your injury.
Prior to the Jones Act, in a line of cases beginning with The Osceola in 1903, the United States Supreme Court held that an injured seaman had no remedy against a negligent shipowner or fellow seaman other than maintenance and cure. Instead, a seaman could only recover compensation for injuries based on the unseaworthiness of the ship.
Congress changed all that with the Jones Act. Congress outlined why it was important for the national defense of our country to have a strong maritime industry, which means protecting those who work offshore and on the high seas.
No Fee Unless We Win
At Morrow & Sheppard LLP, we understand the hardships injured workers or victims and their loved ones face as they try to heal and make sense of their accident. That’s why we work on a contingency-fee basis, which means no fee unless we win your case. Our fee is a percentage of the verdict or settlement we obtain for you.
Some key provisions of the Jones Act are as follows:
46 U.S. Code § 50101 – Objectives and policy
(a) Objectives.— It is necessary for the national defense and the development of the domestic and foreign commerce of the United States that the United States have a merchant marine—
(1) sufficient to carry the waterborne domestic commerce and a substantial part of the waterborne export and import foreign commerce of the United States and to provide shipping service essential for maintaining the flow of the waterborne domestic and foreign commerce at all times;
(2) capable of serving as a naval and military auxiliary in time of war or national emergency;
(3) owned and operated as vessels of the United States by citizens of the United States;
(4) composed of the best-equipped, safest, and most suitable types of vessels constructed in the United States and manned with a trained and efficient citizen personnel; and
(5) supplemented by efficient facilities for building and repairing vessels.
(b) Policy.— It is the policy of the United States to encourage and aid the development and maintenance of a merchant marine satisfying the objectives described in subsection (a).
Seamen’s Rights
The “savings to suitors” clause, 28 U.S.C. § 1333, permits injured maritime and offshore workers to bring Jones Act, maritime law (unseaworthiness), and maintenance and cure claims in a state court lawsuit.
All three claims can be brought at once. An injured mariner does not have to choose between them.
The Jones Act incorporates but expands the rights available to railway employees under the Federal Employers’ Liability Act (FELA), stating:
46 U.S. C. 688(a) Application of railway employee statutes; Jurisdiction
Any seaman who shall suffer personal injury in the course of his employment may, at his election, maintain an action for damages at law, with the right of trial by jury, and in such action all statutes of the United States modifying or extending the common-law right or remedy in cases of personal injury to railway employees shall apply; and case of death of any seaman as a result of any such personal injury the personal representative of such seaman may maintain an action for damages at law with the right of trial by jury, and in such action all statutes of the United States conferring or regulating the right of action for death in the case of railway employees shall be applicable. . .
Bringing A Jones Act Claim
Investigating and bringing claims under the Jones Act involves complicated legal issues and analysis. If you or a loved one has been injured while working at sea or as a harbor worker, it is important that you hire an experienced Jones Act attorney.
Morrow & Sheppard have unparalleled experience, both as partners at prestigious firms handling maritime cases for corporations, and now as trial attorneys representing the injured.
We also have membership and access to resources of the Maritime Law Association of the United States, arguably the most prestigious maritime law and Jones Act organization in the country.
Contact us for a free case review with a Jones Act lawyer today.
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