How to Report a Maritime Injury to Your Employer

The First Step

The report starts the record.

1. How to report a maritime injury to your employer

Knowing how to report a maritime injury to your employer is mostly a matter of sequence and paper, not legal skill. Every maritime injury claim is eventually judged against a piece of paper written in the first day or two, usually by someone in pain who did not know it would matter. The report fixes the date, the place, the equipment, and the injuries in the record before anyone has a reason to remember it differently. Get it right and the rest of the case has a foundation. Get it wrong, or skip it, and you spend months proving something that should never have been in doubt. If you are in the first hours after an accident, our guide on the steps to take after a maritime injury covers what else needs to happen alongside the report.

The Timing

Same day, whenever you can.

2. Report immediately, even offshore

Offshore, the practical obstacles are real. You may be mid-hitch, mid-watch, or in a survival situation where care comes first. None of that is a reason to let a week pass. Report as soon as the emergency is over, and if you were flown ashore before you could tell anyone, call in and follow up in writing that day. Workers most often delay for three reasons, and each one costs them later.

• It felt minor at the time, which is how most back, shoulder, knee, and head injuries feel on day one
• Fear of being labeled a complainer, or of losing a rotation or a spot on the boat
• Assuming someone else reported it, when the only report that protects you is the one with your name on it

The first 24 hours also decide what evidence still exists, from the condition of the equipment to who was standing where. Our breakdown of the first 24 hours after a maritime injury explains what to preserve while it is still there to preserve.

The Document

Write it down. Keep a copy.

3. Put the report in writing

A verbal report is only as good as the memory of the person who heard it. A written report with your signature and a date is a fact. Keep it factual and complete, and resist the urge to soften anything. The checklist below is what a careful report contains.

• Date, time, and exact location, including the vessel or platform name and the specific deck, space, or work area
• What you were doing and who directed the task, in plain language
• The equipment, condition, or hazard involved, described as you observed it rather than as you assume it failed
• Every body part that hurts, including anything that is only stiff or numb so far
• Witnesses by name, plus anyone you told about the injury afterward
• Your request for medical care, stated in the report itself so the request is documented

Before you hand the form back, photograph every page with your phone. If you are told a copy is not available, that photograph is your copy. Then log the details yourself, because the record you build in the first week is the one that supports everything else. For the full sequence of what to do around the report, see our guide on what to do after a maritime injury.

The Language

Facts only. No guessing.

4. What not to say in the report

Injured workers rarely hurt their own claims by lying. They hurt them by being agreeable. Under pressure, tired and sore, people minimize, apologize, and fill gaps with theories. Months later the insurer reads those sentences back as admissions.

• "I'm fine, it's nothing." If you do not know yet, say you do not know yet and ask to be evaluated
• "It was my fault." Fault is a legal conclusion that depends on training, staffing, equipment, and orders you may know nothing about
• "The cable must have been old." Describe what you observed, not what you suspect
• "Just my shoulder." List every area affected, even the ones that seem secondary today
• Anything on social media. A single photo or comment can be pulled out of context and used to argue you were not really hurt

Their Duties

Your report triggers theirs.

5. What your employer must do

This matters for two reasons. First, those documents are evidence, and a good attorney will request them. Second, if the employer never made them, that gap tells its own story. What applies depends on the vessel, the work, and the severity of the injury.

• Vessel records, including logbook entries and internal incident reports created after the injury is reported
• Coast Guard notice, which is required immediately for a reportable marine casualty, including an injury needing professional medical treatment beyond first aid or one that incapacitates a crew member for more than 72 hours
• A written casualty report filed with the Coast Guard after that initial notice
• An employer report of injury filed with the Department of Labor in longshore and harbor worker cases

The Clock

Deadlines start on day one.

6. The deadlines that control your claim

Reporting and filing are different acts with different clocks, and mixing them up is one of the most expensive mistakes in maritime law. Reporting to your employer does not file your claim, and filing a claim does not extend a notice deadline you already missed. The table of dates below is the general framework, and the exceptions are real, so confirm your dates with counsel rather than with a coworker.

• LHWCA written notice: generally 30 days from the injury, with a longer period for occupational disease claims
• LHWCA claim filing: generally one year from the injury, or from the last payment of compensation
• Jones Act and general maritime claims: generally three years from the injury
• Cruise passenger claims: commonly six months' written notice and one year to sue, set by the ticket contract
• Claims involving a government vessel: shorter and stricter, and easy to miss without counsel

Because the deadline that applies depends on your legal status rather than your job title, our guide to maritime claim timelines and deadlines lays the systems out side by side, and the deeper explanation of the Jones Act three-year statute of limitations covers what can shorten or complicate that clock.

Pushback

When they will not write it down.

7. If your employer pushes back

Most supervisors handle reports properly. Some do not, because injury numbers affect contracts, bonuses, and inspections. When that happens, your job is to make the record exist somewhere other than in the company's file cabinet.

• Send your own notice, by email or text if that is what you have, so there is a timestamp you control
• Keep every copy, including photographs of forms, message threads, and names and dates of every conversation
• Tell a second person, higher in the chain if possible, and write down who and when
• Get medical care anyway, because the medical record is independent evidence that the injury exists
• Do not quit or walk off without advice, since how you leave can complicate a claim

Next Steps

After the report is filed.

8. What to do after you report

Knowing how to report a maritime injury to your employer protects the beginning of the claim, but the weeks after a report are when claims quietly weaken. Appointments get missed because a hitch starts, symptoms get described casually to a company doctor, and a friendly adjuster asks for a recorded statement while you are still on pain medication. None of that is required of you on the spot.

• Get evaluated promptly and describe every symptom, including the ones you have been working through
• Follow the treatment plan and document missed appointments and the reasons for them
• Keep your own file, including the injury report, medical records, pay records, and every message from the company
• Be careful with recorded statements, which are not the same thing as reporting and can wait for advice
• Do not sign a release or settlement without understanding what rights it ends

If any of this is already in motion, a maritime lawyer who handles these claims daily can tell you what your report actually preserved and what still needs to be protected. For the broader roadmap, our guide on what to do after a maritime injury walks through the sequence from the first hour forward. Offshore Injury Help is not a law firm, this is not legal advice, and no attorney-client relationship is formed here.