Houston Maritime Law Attorneys: Assisting With Vessel Arrests And Seizures

 Houston Maritime Law Attorneys: Assisting With Vessel Arrests And Seizures - At Patrick Daniel Law, our Houston marine injury attorneys are well-equipped to handle difficult marine injury cases that other Houston marine law firms find too complex. Also known as admiralty law, Houston marine casualty law has many quirks and inconsistencies. It takes an experienced marine injury attorney to see these inconsistencies, and we find them in every case that comes to our Houston law firm.

Houston marine workers are at a disadvantage in some marine cases. In other maritime injury cases, they have some advantages in their favor. But only an experienced Houston maritime attorney will be able to figure it all out. So whether you're in Houston, Harris County, Pasadena, Baytown, or the outlying suburbs, if you've been injured at sea and need a Houston marine injury attorney, Patrick Daniel Law is here to help. Contact our Houston maritime attorneys for a FREE consultation.

Houston Maritime Law Attorneys: Assisting With Vessel Arrests And Seizures

Patrick Daniel is an icon among Houston maritime attorneys, renowned for his 20 years of practicing maritime law in Houston, Texas and around the Gulf Coast.

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Patrick Daniel has argued maritime injury cases on both sides and has extensive experience not only with how Houston maritime law cases proceed, but also with the work done at sea by the employees of hundreds of Houston marine companies.

Here is a short list of the types of Houston marine injuries he has handled in Texas and elsewhere:

If you have suffered a Houston maritime injury similar to the above and would like a free consultation with our Houston maritime lawyers or to learn more about our Houston maritime law services, please call (713) 999-6666 or contact us online.

Houston is much more than just oil and aviation. A recent study found that Houston, Texas is the #2 city in the nation for shipping jobs through the movement of cargo between US ports. Only nearby New Orleans has more workers in the maritime industry. When you add up the workers from all Texas ports, it ranks Texas as the No. 3 state in the U.S. in cargo traffic among U.S. ports.

Houston Maritime Lawyers: A Guide Of Advice

The Port of Houston includes more than 200 private and public terminals that handle more than 8,200 marine vessels and 215,000 boats each year. Thousands of maritime workers call the Houston area home.

So it should come as no surprise that there are many maritime injury cases in Houston. Marine workers who are injured at sea do not have as many resources as land-based workers and often need to hire a Houston marine injury attorney to protect their rights and help them recover the losses that result from their marine injuries.

Houston maritime lawyers are plentiful and knowledgeable in admiralty law (maritime law), but experience is key. As an elite marine casualty attorney, founder Patrick Daniel has litigated hundreds of marine casualty cases and secured significant compensation for his clients.

But the process requires more than just a successful courtroom lawyer. Maritime work is grueling, merciless and raw, and any Houston, Texas lawyer who aspires to represent mariners should know the job better than he knows the law. This puts Patrick Daniel Law ahead of other law firms in Houston, Texas. He knows the job. Raised in Louisiana, he has 20 years of maritime litigation experience - some from the other side of the courtroom.

Do I Have A Maritime Law Case?

There are literally hundreds of shipping companies in Houston, and while they claim to value their employees and the sacrifices they make, you're only one fall on a slippery deck or one falling pallet of cargo in rough seas to see how much or how much is really at stake they care little.

If you are injured at sea, do not assume that your employer will compensate you fairly and ensure that your medical bills are covered. Any of the many Houston maritime attorneys will be quick to point out that when an injury occurs, the ball game changes drastically. Not only that, but the rules are different for maritime employees and land-based employees. Defendants in maritime law cases try to hide behind the nuances of maritime law and hope that the injured party does not respond to them.

For example, Workman’s Comp does not cover injuries sustained at sea. But thanks to the federal Jones Act, seafarers have the ability to sue their employers for damages, and employers are responsible for providing reasonably safe working conditions and maintaining their vessels so that they are safe and seaworthy.

So what does maritime even mean? Literally, nautical refers to anything related to the sea. This can be applied to merchant shipping and shipping or military activity. The body of law governing maritime activity is known as admiralty law, a term used interchangeably with maritime law.

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The law of the sea is distinct from the law of the sea, which governs international trade, mineral rights, jurisdiction over coastal waters, treaties and relations between countries. Admiralty cases are more local in their conception and involve civil actions, individuals, companies and representatives of these companies.

The quick answer to when you should call an attorney after a marine accident is "once your boat docks in Houston." If you have access to a cell phone / Wi-Fi and the privilege of making personal phone calls on board, please call or contact an attorney as soon as possible. If your ship allows personnel to make personal calls, management cannot take action against you if you use your time to call a lawyer!

A common mistake some workers make is to try to look like a "team" player who doesn't want to stir things up with the threat of a lawsuit. There may be quite a price to pay for protecting an image that won't even benefit you in the long run. Many Houston sailors – or former workers who are no longer able to work – wish they had called a lawyer immediately after an accident.

Don't try to determine whether you have a case worth filing on your own, despite all the blogs and websites that try to advise you on self-help courtroom strategies. Make the smart move and call a lawyer. Patrick Daniel has won so many Admiralty cases that he can generally spot a winning case within the first few minutes of a FREE consultation. If Patrick Daniel Law accepts your case, the legal fee will come from the final settlement and you will have no out-of-pocket expenses.

Causes Of Maritime Accidents

Once you sail from Houston and leave US borders, even if you are a US citizen employed by a US-based company on a US-registered ship, some laws designed to protect you no longer apply. Fortunately, other laws are coming into play that restore some of these protections, but in a different way.

One such law is the Merchant Marine Act. It is a broad law that includes regulations governing maritime commerce in US waters between US ports. Section 27 of the Merchant Marine Act, known as the Jones Act, requires that trade between American ports be carried only by American-built vessels. The Merchant Marine Act and the Jones Act are often used interchangeably, but in fact the Jones Act is part of the Merchant Marine Act.

The Jones Act also contains provisions with seafarers' rights at their core. These provisions include (among many others):

The main provisions of the Jones Act apply to a special class of workers called the seaman. It is a legal recognition and very important to the process where claims for damages are made. But nowhere in the Jones Act or the Merchant Marine Act is there a binding definition of seaman.

Houston Maritime Lawyers

But there is precedent, and maritime lawyers on both sides must go through past cases to determine whether a claimant qualifies as a seaman. Simply being employed by one of the many shipping companies in Houston and spending time at sea with that job is not enough to qualify you as a seafarer.

Instead of a legal definition, most maritime lawyers and judges usually agree on the following definition, but this definition has undergone a metamorphosis of terminology over the years and is still subject to revision.

"Seafarer means an individual (other than scientific personnel, sailing school instructor or sailing school student) employed or engaged in any capacity on board a vessel" (source).

That's nice and neat and a refinement of the more cumbersome definitions that came before it, but the Jones Act pushes progress back a bit, insisting that to qualify as a seafarer a worker must spend at least 30 percent of their time on board, out at sea. It is a point on which the warring parties in the Admiralty can argue for hours. However, without an overarching definition, it often becomes a stumbling block to the process.

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Workers who do not meet the definition of seafarer can still recover damages under the Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act (LWHCA). This federal law allows the injured party

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