Find Counsel From Experienced Shreveport Maritime Attorneys

By Author: Susan Gray
Total Articles: 5
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Severely injured maritime employees should seek out experienced Shreveport maritime attorneys to guarantee the benefits they deserve while working as a seaman on a US maritime vessel on the Red River and any of the other many inland waterways that intersect Louisiana. A qualified Shreveport maritime attorney can inform you of your rights as a Jones Act seaman or port worker and make sure you collect full compensation after a severe injury.

Located in northwest Louisiana about 15 miles east of the Texas state line, Shreveport is the 3rd biggest city in the state. The city of Shreveport, is just west of the Red River while its sister city, Bossier City, is on its eastern side. Just south of the city is the Port of Shreveport and is one of the nation’s fastest developing inland ports given that it is the farthest north on the Red River, a tributary of the Mississippi and the Atchafalaya River, that is commercially navigable for barge traffic. The Shreveport-Bossier Port handles numerous of barges loaded with steel coil, lumber, flammable fuels such as petroleum, potash, frac sand, soda ash, aggregate, and fertilizer each ...
... month. Large barges moved a record 70,000 tons of cargo through the Port of Shreveport-Bossier in only the month of January 2012. Regrettably, deckhands, crew mates, engineers, and any crew can experience serious brain or head injuries, neck injuries and back injuries while working on barges and towboats.

Martime law is a very area of law that, rather than consulting a general personal injury lawyer, it is much smarter to seek a Shreveport maritime attorney who works within this specialized area of law. Only a seaman who is a part of the crew of a US vessel can recover payment under the Jones Act. If you are a member of a crew working on US tankers, freighters, jack-up rigs, semi-submersibles, barges, lay barges, tugs, supply boats, crew boats, and fishing vessels you are considered a seaman under the Jones Act. The name “seaman” is also relevant to the Captain and his officers. Shreveport maritime attorneys have a thorough comprehension of maritime laws, admiralty law, and the all-important Jones Act, as well as all the numerous specifications for filing claims. Simply because maritime law has a distinct set of statutes of limitations, it is very important to contact a Shreveport maritime attorney as soon as possible after a serious injury.

Determined by a Louisiana State University economist, the energetic Port of Shreveport-Bossier accounts for approximately 7,600 jobs for those living in the surrounding Caddo and Bossier areas. The shipments that is transported to the Port of Shreveport-Bossier via barge is transferred to trains and trucks. It is necessary to use heavy equipment such as deck cranes and mobile cranes to load and off-load shipments from barges and vessels, creating possible risk of injury to dock workers, deckhands, and riggers, if there is any miscommunication between work crews and operators. Serious injury can result when working in the fall zone of a crane if a person is struck by a swinging load, a dropped load, or an unsecured load. Marine employers who don’t train their workers to operate equipment safely may be held legally liable for a severe injury accident. In fact, the frequency of crane accident injuries and fatalities recently prompted the strengthening of rules applying to the operation of cranes on barges, floating cranes and mobile cranes by the federal government. If you’ve been injured while employed on a barge, towboat, or vessel or in a land-based marine job, you may have legal rights to compensation under federal law. Contact seasoned Shreveport maritime attorneys to gain info about your solutions.

Not unexpected, the statistic shows that injuries are quite common among deckhands and mates, partially because the marine towing industry has cut the size of crews on many vessels. Crew members who are dangerously fatigued from overwork because of short-handed crews, increase their risk of suffering a marine vessel injury. Likewise, moving large tows of barges remains dangerous work. You will find a series of five locks and dams that allow commercial vessels to navigate the Red River south of Shreveport year round. Functioning as stair steps, the five locks lift vessels 140 feet along the Red River. The narrower locks require the unhooking and reconnecting of barges. Terrible injuries to deckhands may occur if they should fall overboard while un hooking barges or get pinned between a vessel and a gate if a barge or towboat drifts suddenly. Other lock injuries can happen when a barge or towboat slides suddenly due to an outdraft on a lock gate and slam into a gate resulting in a back injury, a knee injury, loss of a limb, or even a death.

Good Shreveport maritime lawyers are conscious that accidents may occur while a deckhand or Jones Act seaman is handling lines, loading or unloading cargo, disembarking, or when the boat moves unexpectedly. Additionally, bad miscommunication, piloting errors, navigation equipment failures, bad decisions, and inattention can lead to serious maritime worker accidents on the Red River. You have legal rights as a Jones Act seaman or harbor and dockworker under federal law to claim compensation. Examine your rights and obtain guidance from a Shreveport maritime lawyer.

Easy access to the Web makes it possible to locate qualified Shreveport Maritime Attorneys. The big question is how to identify which Louisiana Maritime Attorneys will best take on your case. You can depend on the word of the law office of Gordon, Elias && Seely, L.L.P. to represent your maritime law case and acquire your deserved reciprocity.