What with the busy Gulf ports, Louisiana is unfortunately the site of many maritime injuries and lawsuits. The federal court in New Orleans is often trying to determine how to provide compensation for victims of maritime accidents in Louisiana, especially those people who are injured while working on a ship.
Maritime workplace injuries can be extremely serious and often difficult for most people to understand because they don’t follow the same kind of personal injury or workers’ compensation rules. That is why it is essential that anyone who is injured while working on a ship or a boat seek out an experienced maritime law and Jones Act attorney to help with a Louisiana case.
After a deckhand was injured when he says that his co-worker failed to help pull a wire line, he filed a claim for a maritime workplace injury with the federal court in New Orleans. He has asked for damages for his loss of earning capacity, mental and physical pain and suffering, medical bills, physical impairment and disfigurement, and court costs and attorney’s fees, among other damages.
According to the lawsuit, the deckhand deserves compensation for his maritime accident because his workplace was unsafe and because the wire that he had been directed to pull taut in order to tighten the barges was rusty and kinked. The victim says that he and a crew member had been instructed to pull the line but that the crewmember refused, causing the deckhand to injure his back. It is not clear why the crew member failed to help the deckhand as he had been ordered to do by the captain.
Regardless of if a Lake Charles resident is injured while on the job at a store or on a boat, he or she can hold his or her employer responsible for the numerous financial burdens that develop from a workplace injury.
Source: The Louisiana Record, “Deckhand sues after co-worker’s lack of action causes back injury,” Michelle Keahey, March 22, 2012
