Injured at Sea - Maritime Attorney

Working at Sea

All jobs have certain risks. There can be health risks, financial risks or psychological risks. Some occupations have more risks than others. If you are a fisherman or seaman, it's quite obvious that the risks you are exposed to each day you go into work outweighs many other professions.

Your shift can consist of eight or even twelve hours of challenging work on a day shift or night shift. You can be stationed on a huge vessel with crowds of coworkers or a small vessel with limited facilities. The size and condition of your vessel is a huge factor for risk since a lot of times you are out to sea for one week or even a month.

Sea workers often do not have time to sleep much and if they do, the sleeping accommodations are often inadequate. They are stressed, fatigued, and mentally exhausted. In a working environment like this, injuries are bound to occur. It is true that sea workers go through safety training as do managers. But accidents will still happen.

Job-Related Injury

If you are injured, then we suggest that you contact one of our maritime attorneys. A maritime attorney will be able to advise you on what your next step is. While you are deciding on what legal action you want to take and what maritime attorney you want to work with, it's a good idea to take some precautionary steps. Below we have listed some of them:

• Do not wait to get the medical attention that you need. Keep all records of your medical treatment. Take photos of your injury if applicable.
• Talk with your employer to report the injury. Complete any documentation necessary to officially report the injury, i.e. an Incident Report. Keep a signed copy of this incident report. Be careful of any additional paper work you sign, such as a liability release form or a different incident report form.
• Document any events that you believe may have caused the injury. You may have been assigned a new job, new equipment or placed in an unfamiliar area of the vessel. The machinery you worked on may have been defective. You could have been working with new coworkers or the overall work conditions of the job were simply poor and unsafe. Document any pertinent details including a description of the ship or vessel.

You probably have a lot of questions and feel a bit uncertain about what to do next. The process of getting into a lawsuit may feel overwhelming. Do no worry. Contact a maritime attorney at Williams Kherkher to schedule your free consultation 866.950.9000.