Seiners

Lawyers for Crewmen Injured Aboard Seiners

Crewmen working aboard fishing vessels using seining nets frequently receive serious personal injuries. In the race to catch salmon, herring, squid, sardines and tuna, profits are sometimes placed ahead of crewmen safety. Working with defective equipment, inexperienced crew, or in too heavy seas can easily lead to a crewman’s injury. The negligence of fellow crewmembers remains the number one cause of shipboard injuries.

If you have been injured working aboard a seine fishing vessel, you are entitled to compensation for your injuries, lost wages, and medical bills under Federal Maritime Law. If your accident was the result of negligence or unseaworthiness, you are entitled to compensation for pain and suffering, disability, retraining expenses, lost past and future earnings. Your employer must also pay you basic benefits called maintenance and cure. The Jones Act provides protection and benefits to seamen working on decks of fishing vessels.

Alaska and Washington have the largest fleet of seine fishing vessels in the United States. The foundation of the Alaska salmon fishing industry was created on purse seine vessels located in Southeast Alaska, Kodiak, and Chignik. In Washington, seine vessels located in Bellingham, Seattle and Anacortes continue to purse seine throughout Puget Sound. At Beard Stacey & Jacobsen, LLP, the lawyers already have experience with handling seine fishing accident cases. They have handled injury cases for crewmen setting and hauling the seine net. It is imperative that the captain of the vessel be constantly watching out for his crew’s safety. Working with the power block, winches, net drums, skiff, stacking lead and cork lines, and hauling nets puts crewmen at risk for injury if proper safety precautions are not followed. The captain of a purse seiner must be alert at all times for stability hazards created by lifting and hauling excessive loads. Snagging the nets during haul back is another risk that can easily lead to crewmen injury.

Beard Stacey & Jacobsen, LLP is one of the nation’s leading maritime injury law firms. The firm’s lawyers have handled thousands of Jones Act negligence cases for injury to fishing vessel crewmen. Their law firm is the largest firm in Alaska and Washington limiting its practice to representing injured seamen. They have handled 30 claims in excess of a million dollars and have successfully litigated over 50 maritime wrongful death claims in Alaska, Washington, and Oregon. Frequent injuries seen aboard seine vessels include amputations, back and neck injuries from lifting accidents and slip and falls, knee injuries, hand and arm injuries, and drownings from capsizings and crewmen getting hung up in nets. The lawyers at Beard Stacey & Jacobsen, LLP understand fishermen and fishing accident cases.

Contact a Maritime Law Attorney at Beard Stacey & Jacobsen.