Most injured workers in Maryland cannot sue their employer; workers' compensation is the trade-off. Seamen are the exception. The Jones Act gives a crew member a direct negligence claim against the employer, tried to a jury, with a lower burden of proof than an ordinary negligence case.
The Port of Baltimore, the tug and barge traffic on the Patapsco and the vessels working the Chesapeake all crew from this region. Our Baltimore office is minutes from the waterfront.
Who counts as a seaman
The Act protects seamen, and that status turns on your connection to a vessel in navigation rather than your job title:
- You contribute to the work of the vessel or the accomplishment of its mission
- Your connection to the vessel, or to a fleet of vessels, is substantial in both duration and nature
Deckhands, engineers, mates, cooks, tug and barge crews and dredge workers commonly qualify. Workers who load or repair vessels from the shore side usually do not, and fall under the longshore scheme instead. Getting this wrong at the start sends a claim into the wrong system entirely.
Three claims, not one
- Jones Act negligence. A claim against the employer where negligence played any part in causing the injury. The causation standard is famously low, and the case is tried to a jury.
- Maintenance and cure. A no-fault right, owed regardless of who caused the injury: a daily living allowance and payment of medical care until you reach maximum improvement. It is owed even if the injury was your own doing.
- Unseaworthiness. A claim against the vessel owner where the vessel, its equipment or its crew were not reasonably fit for their purpose. This runs independently of negligence.
Maintenance and cure matters most in the early weeks, because it is payable immediately and companies routinely pay it at a token daily rate or cut it off too soon.
Fault works differently here than in Maryland
This is the difference that surprises people most. Maryland applies contributory negligence on land, where being slightly at fault can bar a claim completely.
Jones Act claims do not work that way. They apply comparative fault: a seaman's own share of responsibility reduces the recovery proportionally rather than eliminating it. A seaman who was partly at fault still has a claim.
So advice that fits an ordinary Maryland injury claim can be exactly wrong for a crew member, which is why these should not be handled as if they were road accidents.
What to do after an injury aboard
- Report it and make sure it is written down. An unreported injury is the first thing disputed.
- Get the accident report, and read it before signing. Do not sign a statement that describes the incident in a way you do not agree with.
- Get medical care and say plainly how it happened. Company doctors are not always the end of it; you generally have a say in your treating physician.
- Photograph the equipment and conditions before anything is repaired or cleaned up.
- Do not accept a quick payment in exchange for signing a release. Maintenance and cure is owed anyway and is not a settlement.
- Get advice before a recorded statement.
How long you have
Jones Act claims generally run three years from the date of injury, which happens to match Maryland's ordinary deadline but comes from federal law rather than state law. Other maritime claims, and claims against some vessel owners, can carry shorter contractual or statutory periods.
Because the deadline depends on which claim and which defendant, do not rely on a general figure. Ask us to check it.
