Bellevue Shipping and Boating Accident Lawyer

Maritime workers and seamen may have several options for recovering compensation in a shipping and boating accident. However, understanding the damages available and proving you qualify for awards can be challenging, especially while dealing with an injury. 

Our Bellevue attorneys can explore your options for financial recovery and pursue your benefits and personal injury damages. We may be able to help you seek the following:

Benefits Under the Jones Act

“Seamen” do not usually qualify for workers’ compensation benefits. However, they can seek injury-related benefits or sue their employers for damages under the Jones Act. To be eligible for a Jones Act claim, you must:

• Spend at least 30 percent of your work time on a vessel
• Work aboard an operational vessel on navigable waters
• Contribute to the vessel’s work or operations

Most seamen who suffer job-related injuries will qualify for benefits via a “maintenance and cure” claim, which provides compensation for daily living expenses and medical treatment. To recover other damages, including awards for pain and suffering, you must pursue a negligence-based claim against your employer.

Our Bellevue shipping and boating accident lawyers can review your case and determine if you can seek compensation under the Jones Act. If necessary, we can prove your employer or another at-fault party is liable for your injuries. You have three years from the time of your accident to pursue a Jones Act claim. 

Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act Coverage

The Longshore and Harbor Workers Compensation Act (LHWCA) compensates injured maritime workers that the Jones Act doesn’t cover. Those protected under the LHWCA include employees whose jobs relate to water or marine transport, including but not limited to the following occupations:

• Longshoremen, harbor, and dock workers 
• Shipbuilders and repairers
• Shipbreakers
• Mechanics, delivery drivers, and other employees engaged in maritime work “near or adjacent” to navigable waters

You do not need to prove your employer or anyone else behaved negligently to secure LHWCA benefits. You need only establish that your injuries occurred on the job. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, LHWCA coverage includes:

• Medical treatment
• Vocational rehabilitation
• Disability benefits (two-thirds of your average weekly wages (subject to maximum and minimum amounts) for a period dictated by the severity of your injury and ability to work)
• Survivor benefits if your loved one suffered a fatal injury

You have one year from your maritime accident to pursue a claim under the LHWCA. Our team can help you recover benefits the LHWCA doesn’t offer.

Injury Damages

If your employer or another party’s careless, reckless, or wrongful actions caused your injuries, we could seek compensation with a negligence-based Jones Act claim or personal injury lawsuit. These actions allow victims to pursue awards for all their injury-related damages, including non-economic losses. 

Recoverable compensation may include the following:

• Medical expenses. Our attorneys can seek compensation for emergency transportation, emergency department services, surgeries, medications, hospital and doctor’s fees, physical therapy, cognitive rehabilitation, medical devices and mobility aids, long-term nursing, life care, and other reasonable and necessary medical treatment. 
• Lost income. We can seek the total value of your lost income, not just a portion. We can also recover compensation for lost employment benefits. If you suffered a permanent or disabling injury that interferes with your ability to work, we can pursue awards for your lost earning capacity. 
• Household services. You may need help with cooking, cleaning, transportation, and other household tasks while you recover. We can help you seek these costs and other miscellaneous losses, including medical travel expenses and medically necessary home and vehicle modifications. 
• Non-economic damages. Non-economic damages, also called pain and suffering damages, compensate for intangible physical, mental, and emotional losses. Our lawyers can pursue monetary awards for severe and chronic pain, mobility loss, scarring, disfigurement, depression, anxiety, mental anguish, and impaired quality of life. 
• Wrongful death damages. If your loved one died from a shipping and boating accident injury, our wrongful death lawyers can assist the deceased’s personal representative with pursuing compensation on behalf of eligible survivors. Awards may include medical bills, funeral and burial expenses, the deceased’s conscious pain and suffering, and the loss of your loved one’s income, support, services, care, companionship, and guidance. 

According to RCW § 4.16.080, the statute of limitations for personal injury and wrongful death in Washington State is three years. Under the Jones Act/Federal Employer’s Liability Act, (“FELA”) the statute of limitations is also three years. 45 U.S. Code § 51.

 The clock starts at the time of your accident or loved one’s death. The court will likely dismiss your case if you do not file your lawsuit within the deadline. Our attorneys can help you get started before it is too late.