(310) 773-5207
Your employer simply cannot cut off maintenance and cure benefits because they no longer want to pay them. If they have done so, and they are not on solid legal ground, the California Jones Act maintenance and cure lawyers at The Law Offices of Preston Easley, APC can fight to restore them.
Maintenance and cure benefits are to last until you reach the point of Maximum Medical recovery. Your employer cannot take unilateral action to terminate them. Not only can you fight to have your benefits restored if they have been prematurely ended, but you may also seek attorney’s fees and possibly punitive damages from your employer in a lawsuit.
You do not have to simply sit back and allow it if your employer has wrongfully ended your maintenance and cure benefits. Schedule a free initial consultation with The Law Offices of Preston Easley, APC by calling us at (310) 773-5207 to learn your options.
What Are Maintenance and Cure Benefits and Why Must They Be Paid?
Maintenance and cure benefits pay injured seamen the following:
- Food
- Lodging
- Utilities and similar reasonable living expenses
- Reasonable and necessary medical expenses
Maintenance and cure benefits must be paid due to the special relationship between the injured seaman and the shipowner. One who becomes injured in the service of the vessel should not go without basic sustenance as a result.
As we have covered in the past, maintenance and cure benefits last until an injured maritime worker reaches the point of maximum medical recovery. In the Ninth Circuit, this concept is defined as the point when no further improvement in the medical condition may reasonably be expected. This could either mean that the worker has recovered completely, or a condition is incurable and any further treatment will not help. It is possible for an injured worker to receive maintenance and cure benefits after they have returned to the job, while it is also theoretically possible for a permanently injured worker to have these benefits ended.
Your Employer Cannot Make Any Determination on Their Own
Typically, it is a medical professional who makes the determination that the injured worker has reached the point of MMR. it is not the employer who makes this decision. The employer does review the medical determinations reached by professionals, and they do make an administrative decision about whether to stop payments. However, the situation should not exist in which an employer has decided that a worker has reached MMR and they will no longer pay.
The Ninth Circuit has held that the employer needs “unequivocal evidence” that a seaman has reached MMR in order to cut off benefits. Once a seaman is receiving maintenance and cure, the employer has the burden of proof to show MMR. The employer simply does not have unilateral authority to end their own obligation to pay maintenance and cure.
What Are Your Legal Options When Your Benefits Have Been Wrongfully Ended?
The question is what you should do if you believe that your employer has wrongfully cut off these benefits. The first step that you need to take is to contact a California maritime lawyer for legal help. You will have to take action in court to contest the ending of your maintenance and cure benefits. Your employer can face significant consequences if they wrongfully and willfully do not pay maintenance and cure benefits.
Of course, the most pressing matter for you is to get your payments restarted. Simply stated, you need this money to live. If you are able to show that your employer has willfully broken the law, there may be additional remedies available to you on top of continued benefits. Courts have routinely held that plaintiffs who win cases where their employer has willfully cut off these benefits are eligible for attorneys’ fees. In other words, you will receive the entire amount of your financial recovery because your employer will have to pay your lawyer.
On top of that, a court may order punitive damages when there has been “willful and wanton disregard “ of a maintenance and cure obligation. Not every difference of opinion about whether you are entitled to continue receiving these payments rises to the level of a willful and wanton disregard. For example, if your employer simply cuts off maintenance and cure without consulting a medical professional at all, that may support the award of punitive damages. If your employer legitimately believed that, based on the evidence, you had reached a point of MMR, they may not be ordered to pay punitive damages if they acted in good faith.
Contact a Jones Act Maintenance and Cure Law Firm in California
A California Jones Act maintenance and cure lawyer at The Law Offices of Preston Easley, APC can help protect your right to medical care and living expenses after a maritime injury. Contact us today to discuss your case. You can visit our website or call us at (310) 773-5207 to speak with us during a free initial consultation.
Preston Easley is a graduate of the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD. He served five years of active duty as a Naval officer — three years as a deck officer on a fast frigate and two years as a patrol boat skipper. Mr. Easley also served aboard a tank landing ship in the reserves. Learn more here.
