Attorneys Fighting on Your Side in Riverboat Injuries
If you're a crew member or injured worker, the riverboat companies and insurance companies are not your friends. Their main goal is to deny your claim by attempting to establish that you are not injured or that you were completely at fault for your injuries. You need an experienced team of lawyers on your side to fight these companies.
At the Memphis, Tennessee, law firm of Godwin, Morris, Laurenzi & Bloomfield, P.C., we are ready to fight for you in your riverboat injury claim.
The Jones Act ∙ Unlimited Recovery for Your Injuries
The Jones Act is a set of laws that are very favorable to riverboat workers who have been injured on the job. The Jones Act allows:
- Unlimited recovery: Unlike workers' compensation, there is no legal ceiling on the recovery for riverboat crew members injured in the service of the vessel.
- Maintenance and cure: If you become ill or injured while in service of the vessel, you can recover for maintenance and cure, which represents the cost of room and board during your injury and the medical expenses required to remedy your injuries. We will work to get that payment as high as possible.
- Failure to pay maintenance and cure: If the riverboat company fails to pay you maintenance and cure, we can potentially recover punitive damages and attorney's fees as well as the damages if your injuries were worsened because of this failure to pay.
- Unseaworthiness: If your riverboat injury was a result of the boat's unseaworthiness, or the riverboat company's failure to provide adequate equipment or crew, proper training, or a big enough crew, the riverboat company is legally bound to compensate you for all your medical bills, lost time of work, and pain and suffering, regardless of fault.
The Jones Act covers people who are permanently assigned to a fleet of vessels, including crew members, deck hands, captains, pilots, mates, tankermen, cooks and roughnecks. For more information, please see our Jone's Act FAQ page.
Types of Riverboat Injuries
There are many types of injuries that can occur on a riverboat, barge or its tow, similar to any personal injury, work-related injury, railroad injury or maritime tort claim. Examples of these injuries include:
- Slip and fall on the deck
- Back injuries
- Neck injuries
- Broken bones
- Lifting injuries/shoulder injuries
- Crush injuries
- Wrongful death
No Attorney's Fees Unless We Win
We work on a contingency fee basis, which means that you do not pay our attorney's fees unless you recover damages. We also offer free consultations. Either call our office in Shelby County, overlooking the Mississippi, or contact us online.
