Know If You Have A Case For Your Offshore Injury

Offshore injuries are some of the most dangerous injury cases out there. With the threat of such accidents like rig explosions and boating incidents, understanding when your injury is considered an offshore injury for the company will help you immensely. Unfortunately, sometimes the process is muddled in law jargon, and is tough to traverse without proper guidance. Knowing what could and couldn’t be considered for a case could mean shaving off months of wondering or speculating and getting a solid case moving properly. Here are a few things to keep in mind when confirming if you have a case for an offshore injury.

Document Everything.  Although this seems like a simple concept that everyone already knows, documentation is extremely important. Documentation of the events that transpired is important for two reasons: One is for preservation of the events. Preserving all evidence of the incident, from the timing reports to any physical evidence that is left, will ensure that you have a complete timeline of all the events. Second is to help dispute any false charges. Although it is not often happen, when attempting to go up against different groups of people, the truth may be distorted in any way, shape, or form. Documenting everything as it happens will ensure that there is an accurate, fair, and up-to-date timeline of the events so that they are not able to be disputed by either party. This also leads into the next step of the process.

Meet the Requirements.  With all the information at your hands, it is now possible to look into creating a case. With any case that involves a possible offshore injury, it must go through a certain list of requirements. Although there are multiple different laws that are used for the guidelines, they all follow the same basic principles. The main laws that are used are the Jones Act, the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act, and the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act. Each of these are used to cover depending on the company and work, but they all follow the same basic principles of determining if a case is eligible. This is where making sure that all your documented information is readily available. Having the documentation of the events that transpired will help to solidify reasons such as where the incident occured, when it occured, and what machinery or utilities were used when the incident occurred.

Hire the Appropriate Lawyer or Attorney.  Although there are many lawyers out there for you to talk to, make sure you are being advised by ones who have advanced and in-depth knowledge of the subject at hand. A general lawyer would work, but at times, the best way to make sure your case is rock-solid is to hire an experienced offshore injury lawyer or attorney to work with you. This will ensure that no loopholes will be used to undermine your case. At the same time, he or she will be able to walk you through the specific steps to taking your case from start to finish against your opponents, if there are any.

These are just a few general steps to take when attempting to start the case up with an offshore injury. Although each case is different by nature, the general basis is the same. Preserve the evidence, meet the requirements, and hire the proper lawyer. All these steps will ensure that your case pulls through.

Know If You Have A Case For Your Offshore Injury

Lapeze & Johns