What to Do After a Maritime Injury: The First 24 Hours and Beyond

01

What "a maritime injury" actually means and why your status drives everything

1. What "a maritime injury" actually means and why your status drives everything

A maritime injury is any injury that occurs in connection with work on the navigable waters of the United States, on a vessel in navigation, on an offshore drilling structure, on the docks during loading or unloading, or aboard a passenger vessel at sea or in port. The category covers everything from a deckhand's herniated disc on a tugboat to a longshoreman's crushed foot on a pier, a platform worker's chemical burn on a fixed structure in the Gulf, a cruise crew member's slip-and-fall, and a passenger's injury during a shore excursion. What separates maritime injuries from ordinary workers compensation cases is the legal framework: federal maritime law, often with specialty federal statutes, controls almost everything that follows.

Status, not injury type, decides which law applies

The same back injury, in the same week, on a structure twelve miles off Louisiana, can be a Jones Act claim worth a jury verdict for one worker and an LHWCA workers compensation claim with no jury and capped damages for the worker standing next to him. The difference is status. A seaman under the Chandris test (substantial connection to a vessel in navigation, generally 30 percent or more of work time) has Jones Act rights. A longshore or harbor worker, a shipyard worker, or most fixed-platform workers have LHWCA rights. A platform worker on the Outer Continental Shelf has OCSLA rights with surrogate state law. Status is decided by the facts of the worker's role and the facility — not by whatever job title the employment contract uses.

Why the first hours matter regardless of status

Status determines which framework controls, but the steps that protect the case are the same across frameworks: get medical care, report in writing, lock down evidence, refuse recorded statements, get a second medical opinion, and consult a specialty maritime injury lawyer before any deadline runs. These steps are why a Jones Act seaman ends up with a full personal-injury recovery and a comparable LHWCA worker ends up with statutory minimum benefits — not the medical injury itself.

2. The first hour: medical triage decisions that affect your case

The first hour after a maritime injury is medical, not legal. But the medical decisions made in that hour become legal evidence within days. Adrenaline, the desire not to look weak in front of the crew, the fear of being seen as a complainer, and the practical pressure to finish the hitch all push injured maritime workers to underreport. The single most damaging pattern in maritime injury cases is the worker who said "I'm fine" in the first hour and went to the doctor a week later.

Accept transport for anything serious

Anything involving a head strike, a fall from height, a fire, a chemical exposure, a blast or pressure event, or any loss of consciousness — however brief — warrants transport off the vessel or platform for proper evaluation. Concussions present mildly and worsen. Back injuries are often dismissed in the first hour because the adrenaline blocks the pain. Smoke inhalation symptoms can be delayed 6 to 24 hours after exposure. Burns under PPE may not be visible until the gear comes off in a controlled medical setting. Accept the helicopter, the crew boat, the ambulance.

Tell the medic exactly what happened

The first medical encounter creates the contemporaneous record that defense counsel will rely on for years. Describe the mechanism of injury in plain, factual terms: what you were doing, what hit you or what you hit, what direction you fell, what you felt at the time and what you feel now. Do not speculate about why it happened. Do not minimize. Do not say "I'm fine" if you are not. Vague initial complaints become the insurer's argument that the injury was not work-related, or did not occur on the date claimed.

Insist on a complete examination

Rig medics, ship captains, and shoreside clinics under contract to the employer sometimes provide cursory examinations focused on whether the worker can return to duty. Ask for a complete examination, including imaging where appropriate. If your symptoms involve the head, neck, or back, ask specifically about CT, MRI, or x-ray. For inhalation injuries, ask about pulmonary function testing. For burns, ask for a burn-specialist consultation. Document what was offered and what was refused.

3. The first 24 hours: medical, reporting, witnesses, evidence

The first 24 hours after a maritime injury is the highest-value window for protecting the case. Most actions that can be taken in this window cannot be replicated later. Witnesses rotate off, equipment is replaced, logs may be overwritten, and the case shape is set by the contemporaneous record. The order is medical first, then reporting, then witnesses, then evidence — never the reverse.

Medical first, always

Even if the injury seems minor, the medical record needs to exist. A primary care visit, an emergency department visit, or an occupational medicine clinic visit — in that order of practical accessibility — creates the date-of-injury record. Bring someone who can take notes. Get copies of every record before leaving. Ask for return-visit instructions in writing.

Report up the chain in writing

Notify the captain, supervisor, or shoreside operations as soon as you have stabilized. Use the most permanent medium available: company injury form, email, or text — in that order of preference. Verbal reports get forgotten or denied. State the facts, the time, the location, and the witnesses by name. Do not speculate about cause. Do not minimize. Keep a copy on your own phone, sent to a personal email outside the company system.

Get witness contact information immediately

Within hours, the witnesses to your injury may be helicoptered off the rig, rotated to another vessel, or flown home — sometimes to other countries. Get full names, phone numbers, personal email addresses, and home cities. Ask each witness what they saw, in their own words, and write it down. Non-employee contractors, third-party service workers, and short-term crew are often the most useful witnesses precisely because they are independent of the employer.

Preserve evidence within reach

Photograph the equipment involved, the deck or platform conditions, the weather (if it contributed), and your own injuries. Save your boots, gloves, harness, PPE, and any other gear involved. Note the vessel name, hull number, owner, and any subcontractors aboard. Send copies of everything to a personal email outside the company system.

4. Required reporting: USCG, employer, OSHA, BSEE — and the timeline traps

Several federal reporting obligations may be triggered by a maritime injury, depending on the facility, the severity, and the employer's structure. Some obligations fall on the employer; some on the master of the vessel; some on the worker. None are optional. Failure to report — by anyone in the chain — becomes the defense argument that the injury did not occur as claimed.

USCG marine casualty reporting

Under 46 C.F.R. Part 4, the owner, agent, master, operator, or person in charge of a vessel must report a marine casualty to the nearest USCG sector within five days. Reportable casualties include unintended grounding, loss of main propulsion, loss of vessel control, deaths, serious injuries (those requiring more than 72 hours of medical treatment beyond first aid), property damage exceeding $25,000, and significant releases of oil or hazardous substances. The report is made on form CG-2692. Confirm the report was filed; if the employer does not file it, the injured worker or their lawyer can. The casualty file is a critical evidence source.

Employer injury reporting

Every maritime employer requires internal injury reporting under company policy, typically the same day or shift. The injured worker is generally the source. Use the company injury form if available, and email or text the supervisor with the same content as a backup. The internal report is the contemporaneous evidence the worker controls. Without it, the employer's first defense is denial that the injury occurred at all.

OSHA reporting (for non-vessel maritime work)

For shipyard, longshore, and harbor work covered by OSHA (29 C.F.R. Part 1915, 1917, and 1918), the employer must report fatalities within 8 hours and hospitalizations, amputations, or eye losses within 24 hours. Vessel injuries on the navigable waters are generally outside OSHA's primary jurisdiction (USCG controls there), but shoreside maritime employers — stevedores, ship repairers, terminal operators — are subject to OSHA reporting and inspection.

BSEE reporting (offshore oil and gas)

The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) requires reporting of injuries and incidents on offshore oil and gas facilities under 30 C.F.R. Part 250. Reportable items include fatalities, injuries requiring evacuation, fires, spills, and equipment failures. BSEE investigations produce reports that are often valuable in subsequent litigation.

5. What to say (and not say) to investigators, neutral parties, and adjusters

In the days after a maritime injury, several different people may contact the injured worker: USCG investigators, OSHA or BSEE investigators, the employer's HR or safety personnel, the employer's insurance adjuster, the vessel owner's protection and indemnity (P&I) club representative, and sometimes lawyers retained by the employer who present themselves as neutral. Each conversation creates evidence. Some are mandatory; some are not. The injured worker must understand the difference.

Government investigators (USCG, OSHA, BSEE)

Cooperation with federal investigators is expected and generally helpful to the case. Speak factually. State what happened in plain terms — what you were doing, what you observed, who else was present. Do not speculate about cause. Do not minimize. Do not characterize co-workers, supervisors, or company decisions. If you do not remember a detail, say you do not remember; do not guess. Government investigations typically produce written reports that are useful evidence later. You can request a copy of any statement you give.

Company personnel and adjusters

Conversations with the employer's HR, safety, or claims personnel are not legally privileged, are usually recorded or transcribed, and are often used to build the defense file. You are not required to give a recorded statement to your employer's insurance adjuster or the vessel owner's P&I representative. You are not required to repeat your account in multiple separate sessions. Politely decline until you have spoken with a maritime injury lawyer.

Anyone presenting themselves as neutral

"Neutral" parties in maritime injury cases are almost never neutral. The vessel owner's P&I club adjuster, the drilling contractor's "joint" investigator, and the employer's outside counsel all represent the defense, even when they sound friendly. If someone says they "just want to get the facts," ask whose facts and assume the answer is the defense's.

6. The recorded statement trap and the medical authorization trap

Two of the most damaging documents in maritime injury cases are voluntarily provided by injured workers in the first weeks after an incident: the recorded statement to an insurance adjuster, and the general medical authorization form sent by the employer or its insurer. Both are presented as routine. Both can effectively end the case.

The recorded statement trap

A recorded statement is a transcribed or audio-recorded interview, usually conducted by an insurance adjuster, that captures the injured worker's account of the incident, the symptoms, the medical history, and the work history. The adjuster's goals are to lock the worker into specific words that may contradict later medical findings, to elicit speculation about cause, to extract minimizing language ("I'm okay, just sore"), to identify pre-existing conditions, and to find inconsistencies. The recording is then used in deposition, in summary judgment briefs, and at trial. You are not required to give a recorded statement to a non-government party. Politely decline.

The medical authorization trap

A general medical authorization form releases the injured worker's entire medical history — every visit to every provider, ever — to the insurance carrier. Pre-existing back pain becomes the cause of the current injury. An old chemical dependency note becomes the credibility attack. Mental health records become impeachment material. What you should sign, on a lawyer's advice, is a limited HIPAA-compliant authorization that releases only records related to the current injury and only from specified providers, for a specified time period.

What to sign and what not to sign

Decline to sign any form in the first weeks after an injury beyond what is required for immediate medical treatment. Sign HIPAA medical consents at treating facilities for treatment purposes only. Do not sign global releases, indemnity agreements, or anything labeled "settlement" or "final release." Insurers sometimes present these alongside a small early payment; the early payment may be far less than the case is worth, and the release language may extinguish all future claims.

07

Documenting the incident: photos, witnesses, vessel records, gear

7. Documenting the incident: photos, witnesses, vessel records, gear

The case is built or lost in the documentation captured in the first 72 hours. Maritime injury cases are won by the worker who has photos of the actual equipment involved, contact information for every witness, copies of vessel logs and work permits, and physical preservation of the gear that failed. They are lost by the worker who relied on the employer to preserve the same evidence.

Photographs

Photograph the equipment involved (close-up and in context), the deck or platform conditions (lighting, weather, debris, surface condition), the area where the injury occurred (from multiple angles), and the injuries themselves (immediately and over the following days as bruising develops or surgery occurs). If you cannot take photos because of the injury, ask a crewmate to take them. Send copies to a personal email outside the company system the same day.

Witnesses

Get full names, cell phone numbers, personal email addresses, employer name, and home city for every person who saw the incident, was nearby when it happened, was involved in any rescue or first aid, or was working on related equipment. Include non-employees: third-party contractors, riding crew, inspectors, regulators on board. These witnesses are often the most credible at trial precisely because they have no employment loyalty to the defense. Write down what each witness says in their own words, with date and time of the conversation.

Vessel and platform records

The vessel deck log, engine room log, captain's log, work permits, hot work permits (if applicable), gas-detection records, weather logs, safety meeting minutes, JSAs (job safety analyses), and the night-orders book are all evidence. They are also under the employer's control, which means they can be edited or "lost." Note the existence of each document at the time of the incident; a specialty maritime injury lawyer will preserve them through a litigation hold letter.

Physical gear

Save your boots, gloves, harness, fall-protection lanyard, hard hat, eye protection, fire-resistant clothing, and any other PPE involved in the incident. Do not return defective gear to the company. Physical preservation of a failed component can support a products liability claim against the manufacturer — often the largest insurance source in the case.

8. The medical chain: company doctor vs. your doctor, MMI, second opinions

The medical chain in a maritime injury case has two structural pressures the injured worker needs to understand. The first is that the company-paid clinic doctor is paid by the company and operates under return-to-work pressure. The second is that the date a doctor declares maximum medical improvement (MMI) is a legal milestone that triggers benefit reductions and settlement offers. Understanding both lets the injured worker push for a complete medical picture instead of accepting an incomplete one.

Your right to choose a physician

A Jones Act seaman has a long-recognized right to free choice of physician, with the employer paying as part of the cure obligation. An LHWCA worker has an initial choice of physician, with employer-network constraints in some circumstances. An OCSLA worker on a fixed platform follows the adjacent state's workers compensation framework, which varies by state. In every framework, the worker generally has the right to a second opinion for any serious injury. Insist on it.

What MMI is and why it matters

Maximum Medical Improvement, or MMI, is the point at which a treating physician determines that further treatment is unlikely to materially improve the worker's condition. MMI is a legal milestone, not a medical cure. When MMI is declared, several things happen at once: cure benefits end for seamen, disability ratings are issued for LHWCA workers, lump-sum settlement offers are typically made, and the future medical picture becomes the basis for damages. Company-paid doctors often declare MMI prematurely — before surgery has been considered, before all conservative treatment has been exhausted, or before specialist evaluation. An independent specialist opinion is the counterweight.

Specialists by injury type

For back and joint injuries, a board-certified orthopedist or spine specialist. For head impact, dizziness, or persistent headaches, a neurologist with traumatic brain injury experience. For inhalation injuries, a pulmonologist with occupational exposure experience. For burns or chemical exposure, a burn-center specialist. For psychological injury after a catastrophic event, a psychiatrist or psychologist with PTSD experience. The treating specialist's written report — diagnosis, prognosis, future treatment recommendations, work restrictions — is one of the most important documents in the case.

9. Maintenance and cure: the seaman's daily benefit and how companies underpay it

Maintenance and cure is a unique benefit in maritime law, owed to seamen under general maritime law independent of any fault analysis. Maintenance is a daily living stipend, paid while the seaman is recovering from any illness or injury that begins or manifests during service to the vessel. Cure is medical treatment, paid by the employer until the seaman reaches maximum medical improvement. Maintenance and cure is among the oldest doctrines in admiralty, but the practical implementation in modern cases is where the disputes live.

What maintenance is supposed to cover

Maintenance is supposed to cover reasonable food and lodging ashore — the cost of living while the seaman cannot live aboard the vessel. The rate is a question of fact, not a fixed statutory amount. Many shipping and offshore companies pay outdated rates of $15 to $25 per day from collective bargaining agreements or company policy. The actual reasonable cost of food and lodging in a Gulf Coast city, for example, is often $35 to $50 per day or more. Underpayment is the norm, not the exception.

Cure: the medical obligation

Cure obligates the employer to pay for medical treatment until MMI is reached. This includes hospital, physician, prescription, physical therapy, and reasonable transportation costs. The employer's duty is not satisfied by routing the seaman through a low-cost company clinic; the seaman can seek treatment from a qualified physician of their choosing. Disputes commonly arise over surgery, specialist consultations, and home health care — all of which the company doctor may resist and which the cure obligation often supports.

Punitive damages for wrongful denial

Under Atlantic Sounding Co. v. Townsend, 557 U.S. 404 (2009), wrongful denial of maintenance and cure can support punitive damages. The remedy is not symbolic — multi-million-dollar punitive verdicts have been entered against employers who systematically underpaid maintenance, terminated cure prematurely, or refused to pay for clearly indicated treatment. Document each denial in writing. A maintenance and cure action can be filed separately from the main negligence case.

10. Which legal framework controls your case: Jones Act, LHWCA, OCSLA, DOHSA, cruise contracts

The legal framework controlling a maritime injury case is decided by three facts: the worker's status, the type of facility, and the location of the incident. The same physical injury, in the same week, can be a Jones Act case worth a jury verdict for one worker and an LHWCA workers compensation claim with no jury and capped damages for the worker next to him. Framework selection is the single most consequential legal decision in a maritime injury case, and a specialty lawyer pleads in the alternative when the lines are not clear.

Jones Act (46 U.S.C. § 30104)

The Jones Act gives seamen the right to sue their employer for negligence, with full personal injury damages and a jury trial right. A seaman under Chandris, Inc. v. Latsis, 515 U.S. 347 (1995), is a maritime worker with a substantial connection in both nature and duration to a vessel in navigation — typically 30 percent or more of work time aboard. Most deckhands, engineers, mates, captains, fishing crew, tugboat crew, and supply vessel crew are seamen. Some MODU drilling crew qualify; fixed-platform crew generally do not.

LHWCA (33 U.S.C. §§ 901–950) and Section 905(b)

The Longshore and Harbor Workers Compensation Act is a federal no-fault workers compensation system covering longshore workers, harbor workers, shipyard workers, ship repairers, ship breakers, and many fixed-platform workers. It provides medical, disability, and death benefits without proof of fault. Critically, it also provides Section 905(b) rights — the ability of an LHWCA worker to sue a vessel owner for vessel negligence, even while receiving LHWCA benefits from the worker's direct employer. Section 905(b) is the most important claim path for many non-seamen maritime workers.

OCSLA (43 U.S.C. §§ 1331–1356b)

The Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act applies to fixed structures on the Outer Continental Shelf — generally more than three miles offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. OCSLA adopts the adjacent state's law as surrogate federal law for tort and workers compensation purposes. For Louisiana-adjacent platforms, Louisiana state law applies; for Texas-adjacent platforms, Texas law. The combination of OCSLA + LHWCA + adjacent state law produces complex claim structures that specialty lawyers regularly navigate.

DOHSA and general maritime law

The Death on the High Seas Act, 46 U.S.C. §§ 30301–30308, governs wrongful death actions for deaths occurring beyond three nautical miles from shore. DOHSA limits recovery to pecuniary damages — lost financial support, household services, funeral expenses — and does not allow loss-of-society or grief damages for survivors. General maritime law covers wrongful death in territorial waters, with broader recovery under Norfolk Shipbuilding & Drydock Corp. v. Garris, 532 U.S. 811 (2001).

Cruise passenger contracts

Cruise passenger injury claims are governed by general maritime law as modified — usually significantly — by the passenger ticket contract. Most major cruise lines impose a six-month written notice requirement plus a one-year suit deadline, and a forum-selection clause requiring suit in a specific federal district. These contract terms are typically enforceable under Carnival Cruise Lines v. Shute, 499 U.S. 585 (1991), as long as they are conspicuous and reasonable.

11. Statute of limitations: the hidden clocks that bar maritime claims

Every maritime injury claim has at least one statute of limitations and often several. Miss the deadline and the claim is barred forever — no matter how serious the injury, no matter how clear the liability. Some deadlines run from injury; some from notice; some from discovery; some from contractual events that the injured worker may not even be aware of. Tracking every applicable deadline is one of the core functions of specialty maritime injury counsel.

The headline deadlines

Jones Act and general maritime law: three years from the date of injury. LHWCA: one year from injury (two years for occupational disease), with employer notice required within 30 days. DOHSA: three years from death. Most personal injury claims under OCSLA's adjacent state law: one to three years depending on the state. Cruise passenger contracts: typically a six-month written notice requirement plus a one-year suit deadline. Maintenance and cure: no fixed limitations period under maritime law, though laches applies.

The Limitation of Liability Act six-month trap

Under 46 U.S.C. § 30511, when a vessel owner files a Limitation of Liability Act action — capping the owner's liability at the post-casualty vessel value — the injured worker has only six months from receiving notice to file a claim in the limitation proceeding. Vessel owners routinely file limitation actions defensively. The six-month deadline is among the most dangerous in maritime injury law because the injured worker may not realize the clock has started until counsel checks the federal court dockets.

Discovery rule and occupational disease

For latent injuries and occupational disease — chemical exposure leading to lung disease years later, noise exposure leading to deafness over decades, repetitive trauma developing over time — the discovery rule allows the limitations clock to start when the injury is discovered or should have been discovered with reasonable diligence. This is a fact-specific analysis that frequently produces litigation. Asbestos and chemical exposure cases routinely use the discovery rule.

12

Common mistakes that destroy maritime injury cases

12. Common mistakes that destroy maritime injury cases

Most maritime injury cases that resolve below value do not lose on the merits. They lose on mistakes the injured worker made in the first weeks — most often before any lawyer was involved. The mistakes are repetitive across the industry; they are also avoidable with basic guidance. The single biggest predictor of case value is what the worker did, or did not do, in the first 72 hours.

Returning to work too soon

The pressure to return to work — to keep the paycheck, to honor a hitch obligation, to avoid being seen as malingering — drives many injured maritime workers back before they have reached MMI. Premature return is then used by the defense to argue the original injury was minor, that the symptoms now claimed were caused by post-injury activities, or that the worker is exaggerating. If a board-certified specialist has not cleared you for return, stay out.

Talking to insurance adjusters

Conversations with the employer's adjuster, the P&I club representative, or the vessel owner's claims handler are not confidential, are often recorded, and are reliably used against the worker later. Politely decline. Refer them to your lawyer when you have one.

Posting on social media

Insurance defense investigators routinely monitor Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn. A single photo of the injured worker at a barbecue, holding a child, fishing, or smiling — even from years before the injury — becomes the defense exhibit at trial. Lock down privacy settings, stop posting, and tell family members not to tag you.

Hiring a generalist personal injury lawyer

Most personal injury lawyers handle car accidents, slip and falls, and general negligence under state law. Maritime injury cases use federal admiralty law, with different procedural rules, different damages frameworks, different defenses, and a small specialty bar. A generalist may default to a single framework, miss third-party defendants, fail to monitor for Limitation Act filings, or default to an early settlement that undervalues the case by orders of magnitude.

Skipping medical appointments

Missed appointments and gaps in treatment are the defense's favorite evidence that the injury was not serious. Attend every recommended appointment. If you cannot afford to travel to the specialist, tell your lawyer — case expenses are advanceable.

13. Social media, surveillance, and the digital paper trail

The modern maritime injury case is investigated digitally from day one. Insurance defense investigators run social media monitoring, surveillance video, telematics records from company vehicles, phone-location data through subpoenas, and public records searches. The injured worker who treats the case as a private medical and legal matter — without understanding the digital exposure — often hands the defense its best evidence.

Social media monitoring

Within days of an injury claim, defense investigators search Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X (Twitter), LinkedIn, YouTube, and any other public-facing accounts in the worker's name. They also search the names of family members and friends who may tag the worker. Old photos are not safe — a vacation photo from 2019 showing the worker hiking can be used to argue current capabilities. The right move is to stop posting, lock down all privacy settings, untag old posts, and ask family not to tag.

Physical surveillance

For serious injury cases, defense counsel routinely hires private investigators to conduct video surveillance. The PI may follow the worker for days, photograph any physical activity, and assemble a video showing the worker doing anything inconsistent with the claimed injury. This is legal in most jurisdictions when conducted in public. Assume any time you are outside your home, you may be filmed.

Digital data your employer already has

If you drove a company truck, the vehicle telematics show speed, location, hours of operation. If you carried a company-issued phone, the records show usage and location. If you wore a company-issued safety monitor, that data exists. Vessel position data, ECDIS records, and dynamic positioning logs all exist as digital records. None of this is necessarily bad for the case — much of it actually supports the worker's account — but the worker needs to know it exists and is preserved.

What to do

Lock down social media privacy settings immediately. Stop posting. Tell family and friends not to tag or post photos. Assume you are being followed and filmed when outside the home, and behave consistent with your injury restrictions at all times. Tell your lawyer about every digital record source you can think of so a litigation hold can be issued.

14. When (and how) to hire a maritime injury lawyer

The right time to hire a maritime injury lawyer is the first 24 to 72 hours after the injury — well before any deadline runs, before any recorded statement is given, before any release is signed, and while witnesses are still accessible. Free consultations are standard across the maritime injury bar. The cost of waiting is lost witnesses, lost evidence, and missed deadlines, none of which are recoverable.

Signs you need a maritime injury lawyer now

Serious injury (hospitalization, surgery contemplated, time off work expected); any death; any incident that triggered a USCG or OSHA investigation; any request for a recorded statement; any request to sign a medical authorization or release; denial of medical treatment or maintenance and cure; pressure to return to work before you feel ready; or a settlement offer in the first weeks. If any of these apply, call a specialty maritime injury lawyer the same day.

The free consultation

Maritime injury lawyers offer free initial consultations as a matter of industry practice. The consultation is your interview of the lawyer at least as much as it is the lawyer's intake of your case. Ask about specific maritime experience: how many Jones Act cases, how many LHWCA cases, how many wrongful death cases at sea, how many cases tried to verdict in the last five years. Ask about federal court admissions. Ask about the firm's capital to fund expert witnesses and case expenses.

Contingency fees

Maritime injury lawyers work on contingency: no fee unless you recover. Standard rates are 33 percent before suit is filed, 40 percent after suit is filed and the case proceeds to discovery or trial. Case expenses — depositions, experts, life-care planners, vocational economists — are typically advanced by the firm and reimbursed from the recovery. If a maritime lawyer asks for hourly fees or upfront retainers for a personal injury case, that is a strong signal to keep looking.

What to bring to the consultation

Your timeline of the incident in your own words; the names and contact information of every witness; copies of every report you have filed or received; copies of your medical records to date; photographs of the equipment and conditions; copies of any documents the employer asked you to sign; and any correspondence with adjusters or company representatives. The more organized the file, the more useful the consultation.

15. What "specialty" really means in maritime injury law

The phrase "maritime injury lawyer" is used freely, but the substantive content varies enormously across firms. A true specialty maritime injury lawyer has federal court admissions, specific case experience under each major framework, ongoing relationships with maritime-specific expert witnesses, capital to advance significant case expenses, and trial experience in federal admiralty court. A generalist who advertises maritime cases — but actually handles them rarely — is one of the most consequential threats to the case.

Federal court admission

Maritime injury cases are almost always litigated in federal court, often under federal admiralty jurisdiction. The lawyer must be admitted to practice in the relevant federal district. Most personal injury lawyers practice exclusively in state court and have never appeared in federal court at all. Ask directly: "Are you admitted to the [Southern District of Texas, Eastern District of Louisiana, Southern District of Florida] and have you litigated cases there?"

Specific case experience by framework

Maritime injury law is not one body of law — it is at least five (Jones Act, LHWCA, OCSLA, DOHSA, general maritime law) plus state-law products liability under OCSLA surrogate framework. A specialty lawyer should be able to describe specific cases handled under each framework, with verdicts or settlements as reference points. Ask: "How many Jones Act cases? How many LHWCA cases? How many DOHSA wrongful death cases? How many cases involving the Limitation Act?"

Expert witness capacity

Serious maritime injury cases require specialty experts: marine engineers, naval architects, life-care planners with offshore experience, vocational economists who understand day-rate compensation and hitch schedules, industrial hygienists for chemical and inhalation cases, and biomechanical engineers for mechanism-of-injury analysis. A specialty lawyer maintains ongoing relationships with the small community of experts who do this work. Generic personal injury expert lists are not sufficient.

Trial experience

Settlement negotiating power depends entirely on credible trial threat. Defense counsel know which firms can try a federal admiralty case to verdict and which firms can only settle. A specialty lawyer's most valuable asset is the verdict history that makes their settlement demands taken seriously. Ask: "What was your last federal admiralty trial verdict and when?"

16. Red flags: signs your case is being mishandled

Maritime injury cases can be mishandled by the employer, by the insurer, by company-paid doctors, and by the worker's own lawyer. Recognizing the red flags early — and acting on them — protects the case. None of the red flags below are subjective; they are observable behaviors that the injured worker can check against.

Employer red flags

Pressure to return to work before MMI is reached; denial or underpayment of maintenance and cure; refusal to file required USCG, OSHA, or BSEE reports; transfer to a different job or vessel after the injury report; failure to provide vessel logs, work permits, or other records when requested in writing; and "voluntary" forms presented as routine that are actually broad releases or recorded-statement consents.

Insurer red flags

Lowball settlement offers in the first weeks; demands for recorded statements; demands for broad medical authorizations; delayed responses or missing deadlines for benefit payments; routing all medical care through one company clinic; "independent medical examinations" by the same examiner repeatedly; and refusing to acknowledge specific medical recommendations from treating physicians.

Lawyer red flags

The lawyer does not return calls or emails; does not know the difference between the Jones Act, LHWCA, OCSLA, and DOHSA; cannot describe specific maritime cases they have handled; pressures early settlement against the worker's interest; has no trial verdict history; is not admitted to the relevant federal district; uses paralegal-only communication after intake; or asks for hourly fees or upfront retainers for a personal injury case.

What to do

You have an absolute right to discharge your lawyer and hire a new one at any stage of the case. The discharged lawyer may have a lien for time and expenses already invested, paid from any eventual recovery — but this is generally negotiated and rarely prevents a switch. Get a second opinion from a specialty maritime injury lawyer before deciding. For employer or insurer red flags, document each in writing; the documentation supports retaliation claims, maintenance-and-cure punitive claims, and bad-faith arguments later.