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Commercial fisherman working offshore in Louisiana are at risk of a number of occupational injuries, from slip-and-falls onboard to accidental drowning if the vessel capsizes. There are federal and state laws in place to improve the safety of commercial fishermen (including maritime laws), but they cannot guarantee zero worker injuries. If you’re one of many commercial fishers who suffered an injury while on the job, our personal injury lawyers may be able to help you secure compensation.
Hard-working fisherman crabbers, shrimpers, and other commercial seamen can typically find financial relief through the Jones Act. The Jones Act, or the Merchant Marine Act, is a federal statute the protects seamen against negligence at sea. The Jones Act is in existence to offer some form of damage recovery to seamen, since federal and state workers’ compensation laws do not apply to them.
A “seaman” is defined as anyone who performs most of their job onboard a vessel (man or woman).
To qualify under the Jones Act as a part-time fisherman, you must spend at least 30% of your time working on a fishing boat.
The Jones Act provides one of the only means of recovery to injured workers on fishing boat. It makes maritime employers liable for injuries seamen suffer due to negligence from the captain or coworkers. It’s a seamen-centric law that aims to improve the rights of fishermen and maritime workers, and protect them in the event of fishing boat accidents and injuries such as:
Suing under the Jones Act typically requires a personal injury attorney’s help, and Murphy Law Firm is here to help you!
1. This Convention applies to all persons employed on board any vessel, other than a ship of war, registered in a territory for which this Convention is in force and ordinarily engaged in maritime navigation.
2. Provided that any Member of the International Labour Organisation may in its national laws or regulations make such exceptions as it deems necessary in respect of:
1. The shipowner shall be liable in respect of:
2. Provided that national laws or regulations may make exceptions to this in respect of:
3. National laws or regulations may provide that the shipowner shall not be liable in respect of sickness, or death directly attributable to sickness, if at the time of engagement the person employed refused to be medically examined.
1. The shipowner shall be liable to defray the expense of medical care and maintenance until the sick or injured person has been cured, or until the sickness or incapacity has been declared of a permanent character.
2. Provided that national laws or regulations may limit the liability of the shipowner to defray the expense of medical care and maintenance to a period which shall not be less than sixteen weeks from the day of the injury or the commencement of the sickness.
3. Provided also that, if there is in force in the territory in which the vessel is registered a scheme applying to seamen of compulsory sickness insurance, compulsory accident insurance or workmen’s compensation for accidents, national laws or regulations may provide:
1. The shipowner shall be liable to defray the expense of repatriating every sick or injured person who is landed during the voyage in consequence of sickness or injury.
2. The port to which the sick or injured person is to be returned shall be–(a) the port at which he was engaged; or
3. The expense of repatriation shall include all charges for the transportation, accommodation and food of the sick or injured person during the journey and his maintenance up to the time fixed for his departure.
4. If the sick or injured person is capable of work, the shipowner may discharge his liability to repatriate him by providing him with suitable employment on board a vessel proceeding to one of the destinations mentioned in paragraph 2 of this Article.
1. The shipowner shall be liable to defray burial expenses in case of death occurring on board, or in case of death occurring on shore if at the time of his death the deceased person was entitled to medical care and maintenance at the shipowner’s expense.
2. National laws or regulations may provide that burial expenses paid by the shipowner shall be reimbursed by an insurance institution in cases in which funeral benefit is payable in respect of the deceased person under laws or regulations relating to social insurance or workmen’s compensation.
1. In respect of the territories referred to in Article 35 of the Constitution of the International Labour Organisation, each Member of the Organisation which ratifies this Convention shall append to its ratification a declaration stating:
2. The undertakings referred to in subparagraphs (a) and (b) of paragraph 1 of this Article shall be deemed to be an integral part of the ratification and shall have the force of ratification.
3. Any Member may by a subsequent declaration cancel in whole or in part any reservations made in its original declaration in virtue of subparagraphs (b), (c) or (d) of paragraph 1 of this Article.
1. This Convention shall be binding only upon those Members of the International Labour Organisation whose ratifications have been registered with the Director-General.
2. It shall come into force twelve months after the date on which the ratifications of two Members have been registered with the Director-General.
3. Thereafter, this Convention shall come into force for any Member twelve months after the date on which its ratifications has been registered.
1. A Member which has ratified this Convention may denounce it after the expiration of ten years from the date on which the Convention first comes into force, by an act communicated to the Director-General of the International Labour Office for registration. Such denunciation shall not take effect until one year after the date on which it is registered.
2. Each Member which has ratified this Convention and which does not, within the year following the expiration of the period of ten years mentioned in the preceding paragraph, exercise the right of denunciation provided for in this Article, will be bound for another period of ten years and, thereafter, may denounce this Convention at the expiration of each period of ten years under the terms provided for in this Article.
1. Should the Conference adopt a new Convention revising this Convention in whole or in part, then, unless the new Convention otherwise provides:
2. This Convention shall in any case remain in force in its actual form and content for those Members which have ratified it but have not ratified the revising Convention.
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