Tug & Barge Accidents

Tug and Barge and Tow Boat Crewmen Injury Claims

Stacey & Jacobsen, PLLC is one of the most experienced maritime personal injury law firms in the nation. They understand tug, barge and tow boat accident injury claims. They know how injuries happen aboard ship and know how those injuries can be prevented. Unlike many other maritime lawyers, a partner in Stacey & Jacobsen, PLLC has actually worked aboard tug boats. Attorney Jim Jacobsen speaks your language, he understands your job aboard tug and barges, and understands how your injuries will impact your ability to earn a living in the future.

Federal Maritime law provides special protection to crewmen injured on tugs, barges and tow boats. The Jones Act provides an action for negligence against your employer. Your employer owes you a duty to provide you with a safe place to work. Most injury accidents at sea are preventable if proper safety procedures are followed, a competent crew is provided, and if the ship’s equipment is reasonably safe and properly maintained. Under the general maritime law, the vessel owner must provide you with a seaworthy vessel. The duty to provide a seaworthy vessel is absolute. Under these two maritime laws, the Jones Act and the unseaworthiness doctrine, when a seaman is injured through negligence or unseaworthiness, he is entitled to compensation for injuries, including damages for lost wages, lost wage earning capacity, pain and suffering, disability, disfigurement, loss of enjoyment of life, medical expenses, and more. Seaman are also entitled to the no fault remedy of maintenance and cure. Under the maintenance and cure doctrine, the employer must, in almost all cases, pay your reasonable medical expenses and a daily living allowance until you have reached maximum medical improvement from your injuries.

When an crewman is seriously injured in a tug, barge, or tow boat accident, the vessel owner and employer, in most instances, immediately begin to employ sophisticated claims handling techniques to limit the amount of medical expenses and damages they may have to pay the injured seaman. In many cases, the insurance representative or “nurse claims manager” works to steer the injured crewman to doctors who are against surgeries or expensive medical care, even when those surgeries are being recommended by the crewman’s other treating physicians. The insurance companies may attempt to get a release for duty for a seaman before he has reached maximum medical cure, or a release for duty that exceeds the crewman’s physical limitations. It is important for a seriously injured seaman to have an experienced maritime lawyer on his side to make sure that his rights are being fully protected and to ensure that the injured crewman gets the medical care to which he is fully entitled.

Stacey & Jacobsen, PLLC is always on the side of the injured crewman. They never represent the employer, vessel owner or their insurance companies. Their practice focuses on representing injured seamen, and lawyers in the firm have over 75 years of collective experience litigating maritime injury claims.

Stacey & Jacobsen, PLLC has handled cases against some of the biggest tug and tow boat companies in the nation, including, Crowley, Foss, Dunlap, Brusco, Manson Construction, General Construction, and others. Stacey & Jacobsen, PLLC’s verdicts and settlements in past maritime cases of all types gives their clients confidence that their lawyers have the experience necessary to protect their rights and get them full compensation for their injuries.

If you have questions about your rights to compensation under the Jones Act for injuries that have occurred on a tug, barge, or tow boat, contact Stacey & Jacobsen, PLLC for a free initial consultation. The Jones Act is your right and it’s the law.