Jones Act Lawyer

The Jones Act vs. Worker's Compensation - A World of Differences

When workers are injured, many of them are conditioned to look for help first from worker's compensation laws. After all, these laws are specifically put in place to deal with worker injuries, and employers in most states are required to contribute to a working fund that serves as a quasi insurance fund from which to draw when a worker is injured and requires benefits. It's a complicated system at times, but one that's proven effective in several contexts.

However, the situation is markedly different when an employee who works on a ship or at sea in general is injured. While worker's compensation is available for those injured employees, there is a statute that provides specific benefits to sea-faring employees who are injured - the Jones Act. There are several differences between these two bodies of law, and below is a brief look at just how different they are. If you would like a full explanation of how all of this works, please contact a Jones Act lawyer at Williams Kherkher today to schedule a free initial consultation.

Jurisdiction

The biggest difference between these bodies of law is jurisdiction. Specifically, the Jones Act is a federal statute and worker's compensation statutes are mostly state-driven in nature. This plays itself out for injured sea workers in a couple of different ways. First, filing for worker's compensation benefits if a sea-faring employee has been injured can lead to very different results in terms of the receipt of benefits in general or in the amount of benefits received from state to state. There is no state-driven difference when an injured sea-faring employee files a claim under the Jones Act, as federal standards remain the same regardless of the state in which the employee was injured.

Benefits

There is also a distinct difference for the injured worker in terms of benefits available. Worker's compensation benefits provide for payments that are usually a fraction of what the worker was being paid before the injury, and they are meant simply to help the worker stay afloat financially until he or she can return to work. The Jones Act's benefits are quite different. While an injured worker has the right to collect ‘maintenance and cure' benefits while he or she recovers from the injuries suffered, he or she also has the right to pursue general damages if the employer and/or ship owner were negligent, and this negligence led to the worker's injuries.

These are just two differences between these two complicated bodies of law, and if you've been injured in this regard, contact a Jones Act lawyer at Williams Kherkher today to schedule a free initial consultation to find out more.