Being injured at sea can leave you and your family facing significant hardship. Your injuries might be painful, your medical care expensive, and the emotional toll taken on you might be devastating.
As stressful as all of that can be, there are things that you can do to protect yourself and your interests. This includes taking legal action.
Beware of these common mistakes
But even those who pursue a claim can run into trouble, which puts their claim and their potential financial recovery in jeopardy. In order to protect your interests as fully as possible, then, you might want to focus on avoiding these common mistakes.
- Waiting too long to take action: A lot of people who are injured at sea are so focused on easing their pain and suffering and recovering their health that they forget to think about the legal ramifications of the event. This is problematic because there are hard timelines on when you need to file your claim. If you fail to take timely action, then your claim could be barred, which in turn will leave you without the financial resources that you need.
- Having too high of expectations: It can be hard to know what to expect from your case. But you should educate yourself so that you have realistic expectations going into settlement negotiations and trial. If you’re expectations are unrealistic, then you might put yourself at risk of pushing too hard and thereby foregoing a reasonable settlement offer. This means that you may end up taking your case to trial and losing.
- Expecting too little: On the flip side, if you don’t expect enough out of your claim, then you might end up settling for far less than your claim is worth. This, too, can put you at a financial disadvantage for a long time to come, and it may even stall your recovery. Therefore, before you move forward with your case, make sure that you have a full understanding of what your claim is worth.
- Trusting someone whose interests oppose yours: As you pursue your claim, you may come face-to-face with several individuals who appear to be putting your interests first. But the truth of the matter is that a lot of these parties are trying to convince you to settle your case for less than it’s worth so that they can protect their own interests. This includes insurance companies and your employer.
- Letting your legal claim take control of your life: It’s easy for a legal claim to consume everything that you do. But this can lead to an enormous amount of stress and can even create strife in your personal life. It’s important to remember that your claim is meant to support your life, your life isn’t meant to support your case. So, do your best to keep things in perspective as you navigate your claim.
Are you ready to take legal action?
There are a lot of complications that can arise after you’ve been injured at sea. If you think that recovering compensation will help you find the stability and medical care that you need, then it may be time for you to consider taking legal action.
We know that the thought of moving forward with a legal claim can be daunting, but you shouldn’t let the stress of it all paralyze you into inaction. Instead, you should think about reaching out to a legal professional who is experienced in maritime and admiralty law.
