Shoulder Injuries
Just like back and neck injuries, shoulder injuries are commonplace in a labor-intensive environment as is found in the maritime industry. In fact, shoulder injuries are more common than you might think, with 2006 reporting 7.5 million doctor visits for shoulder pain or a shoulder injury. Though most of the injuries suffered in a maritime setting are back related injuries, shoulder injuries are not uncommon.
Most shoulder injuries can be prevented through proper safety training, procedures, and equipment. However, many maritime employers are negligent in providing a safe environment, both at sea in the North Pacific, Bering Sea, and Gulf of Alaska, and at port. If this is the case with your maritime shoulder injury, an experienced maritime injury lawyer in Washington, Oregon, California, and Alaska will help you fight to get justice and maximum compensation from your negligent maritime employer.
Maritime Shoulder Injury Attorney for Washington, Oregon, Alaska, and California
When the negligence of a maritime employer results in your injury, you should be fairly compensated. The Washington, Oregon, Alaska, and California maritime injury lawyers of Anderson Carey Williams & Neidzwski, PLLC out of Seattle, Bellingham, Portland, and San Francisco have decades of combined experience fighting coast-to-coast for the best interest of maritime clients like you against a maritime company only concerned with its bottom line.
If you have suffered a shoulder injury due to the negligence of your maritime employer, contact Anderson Carey Williams & Neidzwski, PLLC. Your first consultation is free, so call 1 (800) 262-8529 to schedule yours today.
Maritime Shoulder Injury Information Center
- Maritime Shoulder Injury Causes
- Types of Maritime Shoulder Injuries
- Maritime Shoulder Injury Recoverable Damages
Maritime Shoulder Injury Causes
Typically, shoulder injuries fall into two categories: injuries due to sudden trauma and injuries due to continuous strain. Whether you work at the harbor, docks, shipyard, or on a ship, tugboat, barge, fishing vessel, or oil rig, you and other seamen constantly place yourself at risk of a shoulder injury just by working in the maritime environment. In addition to using your arms and shoulders to lift, haul, tug, and turn on a daily basis, your shoulder may also come into violent contact with vessel equipment. Some of the most common causes for maritime shoulder injuries include:
- Excessive and repetitive overhead motion performing daily work tasks
- Improper lifting technique
- Abnormal twisting or bending of the shoulder
- Slip and fall
- Accident involving lines or winches where the arm and shoulder are jerked with force
- High-speed crash of chains, steel rings, pulleys, and other vessel equipment or machinery into the arm and shoulder
- Unseaworthy vessel – poor design, lack of nonskid grating, missing or inadequate safety features
- Lack of proper and adequate safety training
All of these cases of shoulder injury while working in the maritime industry could be related to your maritime company’s negligence, or the negligence of a third party. An experienced maritime injury attorney will be able to fight for the compensation and justice you deserve. Call the attorneys at Anderson Carey Williams & Neidzwski, PLLC today for a free no obligations consultation at 1 (800) 262-8529.
Types of Maritime Shoulder Injuries
The shoulder serves an important function for the arm giving it a full range of motion so that we can perform all kinds of tasks. Though cosmetically your shoulder seems to take up a relatively small percentage of surface area, it is actually made up of three major bones, 10 major muscles, and multiple tendons, nerves, and ligaments. Each individual part can become irritated, torn, or broken if proper safety measures are not taken. Due to the hard labor involved in the industry, the most common maritime shoulder industries include:
- Torn rotator cuff
- Stiff shoulder
- Frozen shoulder
- Tendonitis
- Bursitis
- Arthritis
- Misalignment of the humerus
- Torn shoulder tendons
- Shoulder impingement syndrome
- Dislocated shoulder
- Separated shoulder
- AC joint sprain
- Broken clavicle (collarbone)
- Scapular fracture
- Fracture of the neck of the humerus
- Ruptured biceps
Washington Maritime Shoulder Injury Recoverable Damages
If you have suffered a shoulder injury and are a seaman, such as a fisherman, merchant mariner, deckhand, mate, tugboater, or offshore platform worker, you are entitled to damages if you prevail in your maintenance and cure, unseaworthiness, or Jones Act negligence claim. Many maritime shoulder injuries involve some sort of negligence on the part of the maritime employer, whether that be failure to implement safety procedures or hiring incompetent crewmembers. However, your maritime employer and any insurance companies involved are only going to care about their bottom line. An experienced maritime injury lawyer at Anderson Carey Williams & Neidzwski, PLLC may be able to help you get the following damages:
- Medical expenses
- Future medical treatment
- Rehabilitation expenses
- Reduced capacity to work
- Loss of capacity to work
- Short-term or long-term disability
- Vocational retraining
- Past and future lost wages
- Pain and suffering
- Mental anguish
Anderson Carey Williams & Neidzwski, PLLC | Lawyer for Maritime Shoulder Injuries
The dedicated maritime lawyers of Anderson Carey Williams & Neidzwski, PLLC will fight hard to get you the compensation and justice you deserve after suffering a maritime shoulder injury due to your employer’s negligence. If you are worried about the amount of maintenance and cure you have been offered, or if you haven’t been offered maintenance and cure at all, contact the experienced maritime attorneys of Anderson Carey Williams & Neidzwski, PLLC. We will work as a team and pursue compensation in the most favorable method for you, through settlement, trial, or other means. Call 1 (800) 262-8529 today to schedule your free initial consultation.
This article was last updated on Tuesday, July 31, 2018.
