Seafaring vessels of all types and sizes play important roles in the maritime industry. On these vessels, steps and ladders are needed to ensure the safe and easy travel for employees and guests from room to room. Occasionally, these essential structures fail or were built in an unsafe way. In the event that this results in an injury or death, maritime and offshore injury law may provide a route to compensation.
An experienced maritime injury attorney must be familiar with many types of offshore hazards. For example, a trawl winch could be considered a hazard on a sometimes dangerous maritime job. Often heavy and operated with complex machinery, these wind-affected tools are used on offshore rigs and seafaring vessels to carry loads of various sizes. Unfortunately, they have been responsible for several deaths and nearly thirty injuries from the years 2001 to 2011.
The history of maritime law is a blend of centuries-old doctrines, international treaties, contemporary legislation, private contracts, and some additional elements crammed into one set of interdependent legal rules. The earliest laws go back to the 7th Century when the maritime code of the Island of Rhodes that governed commercial trade and navigation influenced the maritime law of medieval Italian cities.
Suppose a passenger or crewman aboard a cruise ship slips through a faulty guardrail. Who is liable: the cruise operator or the guardrail manufacturer? When workers suffer injury or death while offshore, who owes what compensation to them or their survivors? The answers hinge on the complexities of admiralty and maritime law.
As we embark on a three-day weekend, here is a brief history of this holiday that marks the end of summer for many of us.