Hurt in a maritime accident? Don’t settle for meager compensation!

After suffering serious injuries in a maritime accident, it can be difficult to make ends meet and provide for your family. When times are tough, it may be tempting to settle your offshore accident case for whatever you are offered by your employer or their insurance company.

Maritime employers and their insurance companies are counting on the financial pressures in your life influencing your decision to accept a low settlement for your injuries. If you don’t settle quickly for a small amount, some employers or insurers will even find ways to drag out your case to put further pressure on you to settle. Without knowing your rights or without a lawyer on your side, you might just fall into this trap.

If you don’t know your rights after a maritime accident, then you can’t stand up for them. It is important for you to know what you are entitled to if you were injured while working as a seaman under the Jones Act.

• Maintenance: the Jones Act provides for compensation in the form of “maintenance and cure” to keep you going after an accident. Maintenance is money provided to you to cover your day-to-day living expenses while you recover from your accident. It is typically not a large amount of money but for some injured seamen it can make all the difference. An attorney can sometimes help you get more maintenance than your employer willingly provides.
• Cure: Cure is intended to cover medical treatment related to your maritime injuries, like doctor visits, prescriptions, physical therapy, etc. Under the Jones Act you are eligible to receive cure until your medical condition stops improving (either you get better completely or you recover as much as you are going to from your injuries). Of course, employers and injured seamen often disagree about when a recovery is complete; this is where a skilled lawyer can help.
• File a Jones Act lawsuit: if negligence contributed to your injuries, then under the Jones Act you can file a lawsuit to ask for compensation. Under a Jones Act lawsuit you can ask for compensation to cover your lost wages, medical bills, disfigurement, pain and suffering and more.

Read more about the tricks that employers and insurance companies play in maritime injury cases – order our FREE book “The Insider's Guide to Winning Your Maritime Injury Case”.

Don’t get taken advantage of after a serious maritime / offshore accident. You deserve fair, just compensation for your injuries. Please contact the maritime accident attorneys at the Houston office of Vujasinovic & Beckcom, L.L.P. We will work with you to ensure that you get the benefits you need and deserve.

Vujasinovic & Beckcom P.L.L.C

1001 Texas Avenue, Suite 1020

Houston, TX 77002

Phone: 713.224.7800

Fax: 713.224.7801