Dockworkers and stevedores have strenuous, demanding jobs. They work with heavy machinery, often under crowded conditions, and potentially in difficult weather conditions. The combination can lead to accidents resulting in serious injury.
When dock workers suffer injuries, they may be able to secure financial compensation and potentially sue for monetary damages. Consulting with a maritime attorney who has experience representing injured dockworkers in St. Tammany Parish is an excellent first step toward ensuring that the injured worker receives all they deserve.
Slipping on wet surfaces or tripping over misplaced objects could happen in most workplaces, but the docks are full of unique hazards. Dock workers might fall into the water and drown and improperly stowed shipping containers could crush a dock worker. Forklifts can collide, overturn, or spill their load, injuring the operator or anyone nearby. Cranes may fracture, fail, overturn, or collapse.
Unfortunately, these types of accidents are not unusual, and many dock workers will suffer work-related injuries during their careers. Common injuries include:
Dockworkers are also subject to injuries that occur over time. Examples of these types of injuries include respiratory illness due to long-term exposure to toxic chemicals and degenerative diseases of the joints or spine due to years of manual labor. An injured dock worker could seek counsel from a St. Tammany Parish dockworker injury attorney to get advice about their rights to compensation for a work-related injury.
The Longshore and Harbor Workers Compensation Act (LHWCA), is a federal law that provides support to dockworkers who suffer on-the-job injuries while they recover. Dockworkers must abide by this law’s terms to secure compensation from their employers for injuries that occur on-the-job.
An employer must notify the federal Office of Worker Compensation Programs whenever a dock worker’s work-related injury will result in lost time. The employer must also provide the injured employee with a form to claim benefits under the LHWCA.
The LHWCA provides benefits as long as the dock worker is receiving treatment for their injury. These benefits include two-thirds of the dock worker’s salary and approved medical expenses. If an injury causes permanent harm, LHWCA offers additional benefits. A local dockworker injury attorney could help a permanently injured professional obtain an advantageous settlement under LHWCA.
The LWHCA offers an additional benefit. If a negligent third party, not the employer, caused the accident, that third party may be liable for damages. The injured dock worker might also receive damages from that third party in addition to any benefits they received from their employer under worker’s compensation laws.
There are many circumstances in which an injured dock worker could potentially have a claim of third-party negligence. Some common examples include when an injury happened on a vessel when an employee of another company was involved in the accident; equipment owned by someone other than the employer failed and led to the accident. An attorney could investigate the facts of a particular case to determine whether a third-party negligence suit is appropriate.
Typically, the dock worker’s employer would bring a third-party negligence lawsuit. If the employer does not do so within six months of the accident, then the injured employee may do so. Whoever brings the suit, any money won will first be applied to reimburse the employer for any benefits they have paid the injured dock worker under LWHCA. All excess awards then go to the injured employee.
For most dock workers, an injury is a crisis. Not being able to work may put their family at risk, especially if the injury is serious enough to threaten the dock worker’s livelihood. The claims process is complicated, and it may be hard for someone without a legal background to determine how to proceed. Schedule a meeting with a St. Tammany Parish dock worker injury lawyer as soon as possible after your accident to seek the maximum compensation available for your injuries.
