Undefeated Maritime Attorneys
As a maritime worker, you face tremendous risks while at sea. Admiralty law recognizes this danger and long ago established the principle of “maintenance and cure” to ensure injured seamen receive the financial support and medical care they deserve while recovering from a job-related injury or illness.
Understanding Maintenance and Cure
The doctrine of maintenance and cure is one of the oldest worker protections in Admiralty law, older than even the Jones Act or Workers’ Compensation law. In fact, its roots trace to medieval sea codes that recognized a fundamental truth about maritime work: sailors, fishermen, and others engaged in “seafaring” trades not only work in dangerous conditions, but may also be far from home and entirely dependent on their employers when something goes wrong.
As no-fault benefits, you don’t need to prove negligence to receive maintenance and cure. You only have to prove that you were injured or fell ill while in the service of your vessel.
What is Maintenance?
Maintenance is a daily payment intended to cover the expenses needed to maintain a household while you’re unable to work, such as:
- Rent or mortgage
- Basic Utilities, such as gas, electric, water, and sewer,
- Homeowners insurance
- Groceries
- Transportation to and from medical appointments
Maintenance starts the day you are injured and continues until you’ve reached maximum medical improvement. It’s not a discretionary benefit, and your employer cannot simply decide how much maintenance you should receive on a daily basis. You have the right to document your actual living expenses and demand that your daily payments reflect your reality.
What is Cure?
Cure covers all reasonable and necessary medical expenses related to your injury or illness, from the day you’re hurt until you’ve reached maximum medical improvement, including:
- Doctor and hospital bills
- Surgery
- Diagnostic testing, including MRIs and CT scans
- Physical therapy and rehabilitation
- Prescriptions and medical equipment
- Transportation to and from treatment
Your employer can’t cap cure benefits at an arbitrary dollar amount. If a procedure or treatment is medically necessary, it must be fully covered. You’re also not required to use a doctor your employer selects; you’re free to see any provider you choose.
Who Qualifies for Maintenance and Cure
To receive maintenance and cure, you must meet the legal definition of a Jones Act seaman:
- Your work contributes to the function or mission of a vessel, and
- You spend a significant portion of your working time — generally at least one-third — aboard that vessel or a fleet of vessels under the same ownership.
Workers commonly classified as Jones Act seamen include merchant mariners, commercial fishermen, tugboat and towboat crews, supply vessel and crew boat workers, tank barge crews, dredge workers, commercial divers, and offshore oil and gas workers assigned to mobile drilling units, drillships, jack-up rigs, and semi-submersibles.
Beyond the basics, there are a few other things you should know about qualifying for maintenance and cure benefits:
- Your vessel doesn’t have to be underway. You can qualify for maintenance and cure even if you were injured while your vessel was docked or in port. You’re also eligible if you were hurt on land while performing duties tied to your vessel. What matters is whether you were in the service of the vessel at the time of your injury.
- Pre-existing conditions don’t automatically disqualify you. If the demands of your job aggravated a pre-existing condition, you are entitled to maintenance and cure, provided you did not intentionally conceal that condition in a way that influenced your employer’s decision to hire you. Maritime companies often use pre-existing conditions as a pretext to deny benefits, but in our experience, those denials are worth challenging.
- Not all offshore workers qualify as seamen. Dock workers, harbor workers, and certain mechanics and platform construction workers may not meet the Jones Act definition. However, they could qualify for medical care, wage replacement, and other benefits under the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act.
The Daily Maintenance Rate: Are You Being Shortchanged?
When it comes to maintenance, many maritime employers set a flat rate, often $15 to $35 per day, even though it may fall far short of covering your daily living expenses.
Before you agree to accept your employer’s daily maintenance rate, it’s worth doing the math. For example, at $20 a day, a maritime worker out for the median 24-day recovery period would collect just $480 in maintenance; at $35 a day, $840. Neither comes close to covering a month’s rent anywhere along the Gulf Coast, let alone utilities, groceries, and gas to medical appointments.
The good news is that courts have held that maintenance MUST cover reasonable actual living costs. If your daily maintenance payments fall short of your essential living expenses, don’t assume you have no recourse. You have the right to challenge an inadequate daily rate.
What Is Maximum Medical Improvement?
Maintenance and cure benefits continue until you reach maximum medical improvement, or MMI: the point at which further treatment is not expected to produce meaningful improvement in your condition. MMI doesn’t mean you are fully healed, and it doesn’t mean you’re ready to return to work. It means your condition has stabilized as much as expected, and it’s the threshold at which your employer’s obligation ends.
Doctors paid by your employer have a financial incentive to end your treatment as soon as possible, and sometimes a company-paid physician finds that a maritime worker has reached MMI before they’ve finished recommended treatment, ahead of schedule surgery, or while they’re actively in rehab. Fortunately, you’re not bound by a company doctor’s definition of MMI. If your own physician believes further treatment would produce meaningful improvement, you can challenge your employer’s decision to terminate your maintenance and cure benefits.
One other note: While your employer can’t dictate what doctors you see for treatment, they can require you to undergo a supposedly “independent” medical examination, again conducted by a physician they select and pay for. If that examination concludes with an MMI finding and your employer moves to cut off your benefits, we urge you to contact one of our maritime lawyers before you sign anything. You have a right to challenge that decision. What’s more, by signing, you could unknowingly waive your right to pursue Jones Act negligence and unseaworthiness claims that could be worth tens of thousands—or even millions—of dollars.
What Happens When Maintenance and Cure Is Denied or Underpaid?
If your employer wrongly denies maintenance and cure, refuses to pay you an adequate daily rate, or attempts to cut off your benefits based on a suspect finding of MMI, you can take legal action to force them to pay what you’re actually owed. If they are found to be in the wrong, you could be awarded:
- Your unpaid maintenance and cure benefits.
- Compensatory damages for additional harm that resulted from their conduct, such as aggravation of your injury or being evicted because you couldn’t afford to pay rent.
- Attorney’s fees, if your employer’s decision is deemed willful or “recalcitrant.”
- Punitive damages, if you can prove that your employer’s decision was made in bad faith, either willful, wanton, or callous.
You May Have Rights Beyond Maintenance and Cure
An injured maritime worker’s right to compensation isn’t limited to maintenance and cure. Depending on the circumstances of your injury, you may also be entitled to pursue additional compensation under maritime law.
For example, you can file a separate claim under the Jones Act if negligence on the part of your employer caused or contributed to your injury. If another company owned the vessel, you can also pursue an unseaworthiness claim if your injury resulted from the owner’s failure to ensure the vessel was fit for its intended purpose.
The law allows you to pursue both Jones Act negligence and unseaworthiness claims at the same time, even while you’re collecting maintenance and cure.
Contact our Undefeated Maritime Lawyer at 1-888-603-3636
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