Often, a Jones Act seaman or other offshore worker, dock worker or longshoreman will get injured and a maritime employer will immediately insist that the injured worker come back and do light duty work. Sometimes, the employer will even push an injured worker back out to an oil rig or a boat doing medium duty work.
Running back to work very quickly will be very bad for your case for a lot of reasons. When you are injured on the job, your company will have a lot of people watching you. You will be under maritime surveillance while you stay off of work and you will be closely looked at by everyone on the job if you go back to work. You'll be amazed that witnesses will come into court and testify they saw you doing very heavy activities out there once you went back to work, showing the court you were never really injured.
Many doctors, chiropractors, pain clinics and other medical providers that see you after you go back to work will think that since you are able to go back to work, you are probably doing well enough to work; therefore they will let you keep working. This means your treating physician will release you from care possibly sooner if an injured seaman can return to work on their own.
Of the many damages you are able to recovery in a maritime personal injury case, one of the largest will be your maritime wage loss claim and/or loss of earning capacity claim. Many people working within the maritime industry make good money, and when they get hurt, if they can't go back to full duty heavy labor they have the potential for a large amount of lost wages. When you go back to work, even if it's temporary, you are helping to prove the company's case against you. Your marine adjuster or maritime employer will look at the injured seaman's returning to work as proof that he or she can continue making as much money as before the accident.
A competent, experienced maritime lawyer will tell any injured offshore worker that he or she should never go back to work unless they believe that in their current medical condition they could be hired by another company. If your company offers you some sort of sheltered employment or light duty work that they are creating just for you, to accommodate your injuries, you want to ask yourself if in your current condition you could apply to work for another company and actually get a job. If you can't then you should not return to work.
For more information about your rights as an injured maritime employee, please email us today at SMSH Maritime Lawyers or call us at 1-800-282-2122.
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