Summary. Ten sequences covering injury, cargo, vessels, and casualty response, with the short deadlines flagged.

1. First hours after an injury aboard

  • Report to the master, mate on watch, or supervisor immediately.
  • Ask that it be entered in the log and on an accident report.
  • Read the accident report before signing. Correct it, or write your own description, or decline to sign and submit a written statement the same day.
  • Do not minimize. Describe what actually hurts.
  • Obtain medical attention and give an accurate history of injury — the first medical record matters most.
  • Photograph the scene, the equipment, the condition, and the surroundings.
  • Collect names and personal contact information for everyone present — crews rotate within weeks.
  • Note weather, sea state, watch schedule, and hours worked before the incident.
  • Keep your own copy of the report, the log entry, and any statement given.

2. Establishing status

Seaman

  • Time and assignment records showing proportion of work aboard vessels.
  • Ownership and control of the vessels worked (identifiable fleet).
  • Job description and actual duties — contribution to the vessel's function or mission.
  • Whether assigned to a particular vessel or dispatched.
  • Whether the vessel was in navigation or withdrawn for major repair.
  • Note the ~30 percent rule of thumb, and that the nature prong matters independently.

Longshore

  • Status — maritime employment (longshoring, ship repair, shipbuilding, shipbreaking).

  • Situs — navigable waters or adjoining piers, wharves, terminals, and loading/repair areas.

  • Note employer exclusivity, and the preserved negligence claim against the vessel.

  • Plead in the alternative where status is uncertain; the schemes are mutually exclusive.

3. Maintenance and cure

  • Demand in writing, attaching the treating physician's plan.
  • Document actual daily living expenses with receipts — not a stale contractual rate.
  • Note the obligation runs to maximum medical improvement, no fault required.
  • Note ambiguities are resolved in the seaman's favor.
  • If terminated: demand the basis and the report relied on, in writing.
  • Note that a conflict of medical opinion alone does not justify termination.
  • Keep every communication — willful refusal supports punitive damages.
  • Do not sign a release in exchange for a maintenance payment.

4. Forum selection

  • Decide deliberately: state court (jury, generally not removable for Jones Act) · federal law side (jury) · admiralty side (no jury, admiralty procedures).
  • Consider jury pool, joinder of general maritime claims, removal risk, defendant's location and assets.
  • Consider whether a limitation action is likely, which pulls everything into federal court.

5. Preservation (send within days)

  • Deck and engine logs.
  • Voyage data recorder and electronic navigation data.
  • Maintenance and repair records for the equipment involved; work orders and requisitions; deferred maintenance lists.
  • Crew lists and rotation schedules; hours-of-rest records.
  • Prior incident and near-miss reports; crew defect reports; safety meeting minutes.
  • Inspection, classification society, and Coast Guard records and deficiencies.
  • Drug and alcohol testing records.
  • Photographs, video, and CCTV — routinely overwritten within weeks.
  • The safety management system manual and the specific written procedure for the task.
  • The physical equipment, unaltered.
  • Request a vessel inspection before repairs.
  • Depose crew about to rotate off or leave the company.

6. If a limitation action is filed

  • Calendar and meet the monition date — missing it can bar the claim.
  • Contest the value of the vessel and pending freight, which sets the fund.
  • Attack privity or knowledge: maintenance history, prior complaints, what shoreside management knew.
  • Seek stipulations to lift the injunction and return to your chosen forum.
  • Note the owner's six-month filing clock from written notice of claim.

7. Cargo — at delivery

  • Inspect before signing: seal number against documents, stow, packaging, goods.
  • Note damage on the delivery receipt.
  • Written notice at delivery, or within three days for concealed damage.
  • Photograph the seal, closed container, interior, stow, packaging, and damage before anything moves.
  • Demand a joint survey with the carrier's surveyor immediately.
  • Preserve the goods and packaging — do not repair, sell, or dispose.

8. Cargo — building and filing

  • Assemble: bill of lading · commercial invoice and packing list · shipper's loading photographs and stowage plan · container interchange reports · temperature records for reefer · survey report · repair or replacement quotes · salvage value.
  • Identify defendants: ocean carrier · vessel · NVOCC or forwarder · terminal · stevedore · inland carrier · warehouse.
  • Read the bill of lading: package limitation · Himalaya clause · forum selection or arbitration · notice and suit terms.
  • Determine whether the "package" is the container or each carton.
  • Calendar one year from delivery, or the date the goods should have been delivered.
  • Obtain a written extension if approaching the deadline — negotiations do not toll it.
  • Otherwise file suit before the year runs.
  • Coordinate with the cargo insurer, which may control the claim by subrogation.

9. Vessels — liens, purchase, and arrest

Before buying

  • Search recorded instruments — preferred mortgages and notices of claim of lien.
  • Recognize most maritime liens are unrecorded and follow the vessel.
  • Obtain a seller's affidavit listing suppliers, repairers, wharfingers, and crew, with warranty and indemnity.
  • Obtain payoff letters from known claimants.
  • Escrow part of the price against undisclosed liens.
  • Consider a judicial sale, which conveys clean title free of liens.

Arrest

  • Confirm you hold a maritime lien (wages, salvage, necessaries, tort, preferred mortgage).
  • Track the vessel's position; have the verified complaint drafted before arrival.
  • File and obtain the warrant the day the vessel is in the district.
  • Arrange a substitute custodian; budget custodia legis costs.
  • Expect security — bond, club letter of undertaking, or cash — and release.
  • Consider Rule B attachment where the defendant is not found in the district.
  • Check lien priority — wages and salvage outrank necessaries.

10. Operator's casualty response

  • Care for the injured; document the response and any delay.
  • Report as required, immediately — failure to report is a separate offense.
  • Conduct post-incident testing where a serious marine incident requires it.
  • Issue a written preservation instruction the same day; do not repair the equipment involved.
  • Investigate with counsel; consider privilege before creating documents.
  • Take crew statements before rotation.
  • Counsel before statements to investigators — separate counsel for individuals where interests diverge.
  • Notify insurers promptly; note marine insurance's utmost good faith duty.
  • Pay maintenance and cure; do not terminate on a paper review.
  • Calendar the six-month limitation clock from written notice of claim.
  • Evaluate limitation honestly against privity or knowledge.

11. Passengers

  • Report the incident to medical or security; obtain a written incident report.
  • Photograph the condition; collect witness names.
  • Send a preservation letter within days — CCTV is overwritten.
  • Read the ticket: notice period (commonly 6 months) · suit limitation (commonly 1 year) · forum selection · arbitration.
  • Note the standard: reasonable care under the circumstances, generally requiring notice of the dangerous condition.
  • Demand prior incident reports, inspection logs, cleaning schedules, and maintenance records.
  • For a death beyond the statutory distance from shore, note the pecuniary-loss-only limitation.

12. Deadlines to calendar immediately

  • Jones Act / unseaworthiness / general maritime injury: 3 years
  • General maritime and high-seas wrongful death: 3 years
  • Cargo claim: 1 year (notice at delivery; 3 days concealed)
  • Passenger notice: often 6 months; suit: often 1 year (check the ticket)
  • Limitation petition: 6 months from written notice of claim
  • Longshore notice to employer: 30 days; claim: 1 year
  • Salvage claim: 2 years
  • Casualty reporting: immediate; post-incident testing: hours
  • Verify every period against the governing contract — tickets, bills of lading, and charters shorten them.

Related documents

Educational only, not legal advice. Maritime deadlines are short and often shortened by contract. Consult admiralty counsel within days.