A maritime injury lawyer helps people hurt on the water and along the waterfront, from vessel crew and dock workers to passengers, under the special federal rules that govern injuries at sea and on navigable waters. At Rosenthal, Kooshoian & Lennon, LLP, our maritime injury attorneys prove who was responsible and pursue the full compensation these federal laws allow. Maritime cases run under their own set of rules, and knowing them is what separates a full recovery from a shortchanged one.
Buffalo has always been a water city, from the Great Lakes shipping trade and the Port of Buffalo to the tugs, barges, ferries, and countless boats on Lake Erie and the Niagara River. Where there's marine work and marine traffic, there are serious injuries, and those injuries are governed by federal maritime law, not ordinary state rules. Our Buffalo maritime injury lawyers handle them. This is one focus of our broader Buffalo personal injury practice, so the full weight of the firm is behind your case.
Call us 24/7 at 716-854-1300 to speak with a personal injury lawyer near you, or contact us for a FREE consultation.
Maritime law, also called admiralty law, is the body of federal law that governs injuries and accidents on navigable waters. It applies instead of ordinary state injury law to people hurt on vessels, docks, and harbors, and it comes with its own special rights, remedies, and deadlines. A maritime injury case is a federal case at heart, which is exactly why it needs a lawyer who knows that world.
This is the single most important thing to understand about a maritime injury. The rules that decide a car crash on the Thruway are not the rules that decide an injury on a Great Lakes freighter or a Buffalo dock. Maritime law gives injured workers and others powerful protections that don't exist on land, and our maritime injury attorneys use them to reach recoveries a standard injury claim can't.
A range of people who work or travel on the water. It covers vessel crew members, called seamen, who have some of the strongest rights in all of injury law. It covers longshore and harbor workers who load, repair, and build on the waterfront. And it covers passengers and others injured on navigable waters. Each group has a different path to compensation.
Which category you fall into changes everything about the case, the law that applies, who you can sue, and what you can recover. A deckhand on a freighter, a worker loading cargo at the port, and a passenger on a ferry are all covered by maritime law, but in very different ways. Sorting out which set of rules governs your injury is the first thing our maritime injury lawyers do.
The Jones Act is a federal law that gives injured seamen, the crew members of a vessel, the right to sue their employer for negligence. It works much like the special federal law for injured railroad workers, and very differently from ordinary workers' compensation. Instead of a no-fault benefit, a seaman can recover full damages by showing the employer's negligence played a part in the injury.
That difference is enormous. A land-based worker on comp generally can't sue the employer or recover for pain and suffering, but a seaman under the Jones Act can pursue the employer directly and recover the full range of damages, and the standard for proving the employer's fault is favorable to the worker. Our Jones Act lawyers know how to build these claims, because a seaman's rights are among the most valuable in injury law.
Generally, a worker who spends a significant part of their time working aboard a vessel in navigation. You don't have to be a captain or a lifelong sailor. Deckhands, engineers, cooks, fishermen, tug and barge crew, and many others who contribute to a vessel's work and function can qualify as seamen and gain the Jones Act's strong protections.
Because seaman status unlocks the most powerful maritime rights, employers and their insurers often fight it, arguing a worker doesn't qualify. The question turns on the worker's connection to a vessel and their duties, not their job title. Our maritime injury attorneys know how courts decide seaman status and how to establish it, so a worker isn't wrongly pushed into a weaker claim than the law allows.
Maintenance and cure is a seaman's near-automatic right to support and medical care after an injury or illness aboard a vessel, no matter who was at fault. Maintenance covers daily living expenses while you recover, and cure covers your medical treatment until you reach maximum recovery. It's owed even when the employer did nothing wrong.
This is one of the oldest and most protective rights in maritime law, and it exists separately from a Jones Act negligence claim. A seaman can receive maintenance and cure while also pursuing full damages for the employer's fault. When an employer delays or shortchanges these payments, that itself can create additional liability. Our maritime injury lawyers make sure a seaman gets the maintenance and cure they're owed, promptly and in full.
Unseaworthiness is a separate maritime claim based on a vessel owner's duty to provide a reasonably safe vessel. If the ship, its equipment, or its crew was not fit for its intended use, and that unfitness caused an injury, the owner can be held responsible, regardless of negligence. A defective winch, a broken ladder, an unsafe deck, or an undermanned crew can all make a vessel unseaworthy.
Unseaworthiness gives an injured seaman a second, powerful path to recovery alongside the Jones Act. Because it doesn't depend on proving the owner was careless, only that the vessel was unfit, it can reach injuries a negligence claim might not. Our maritime injury attorneys pursue both together, so every avenue the law provides is working for the injured worker at once.
They're covered by a different federal law made for them. Longshore and harbor workers, the people who load and unload cargo, repair and build ships, and work on the docks, generally aren't seamen, so a separate federal compensation law covers their on-the-job injuries. It provides medical care and wage benefits, and in many cases a worker can also sue a negligent third party, like a vessel owner, for full damages.
This is the maritime counterpart to workers' compensation, but with an important extra path. A dock or harbor worker injured because of a vessel's negligence may be able to bring a claim against the vessel on top of their benefits, reaching damages the benefits don't cover. Our maritime injury lawyers handle these longshore and harbor cases and pursue every source of recovery a waterfront worker is entitled to.
You may have a claim under general maritime law or state law, depending on how and where it happened. Passengers on ferries, tour boats, and other vessels, and people hurt in many on-the-water accidents, are protected by maritime rules that require vessel operators to act with reasonable care. A recreational boating crash may instead fall under New York law.
The line between a federal maritime case and a state boating case isn't always obvious, and it affects the rules and deadlines that apply. If your injury involved a recreational boat crash on Lake Erie or another New York waterway, our Buffalo boating accident lawyer page covers that side in detail. Our maritime injury attorneys sort out which body of law governs your case and pursue it under the rules that give you the fullest recovery.
The full range of serious injuries that happen on the water and along the waterfront. Marine work is dangerous, and the injuries tend to be severe, from a single violent accident to harm that builds over time. Each can be pursued under the maritime laws that fit the worker and the situation.
Our Buffalo maritime injury lawyers handle cases involving:
Whatever the accident, our maritime injury attorneys identify the law that applies and every party who shares responsibility.
Often more than one party, depending on the case. Responsibility can reach the vessel's owner or operator, the injured worker's employer, a company responsible for equipment or maintenance, the manufacturer of a defective product, and other contractors working on or around the vessel. Maritime law provides several distinct claims, and more than one may apply at once.
That layering of claims is a feature of maritime law that a general practitioner can miss. A single injury might support a Jones Act claim against the employer, an unseaworthiness claim against the vessel owner, and a product claim against an equipment maker. Our maritime injury lawyers investigate every angle, because a full recovery usually comes from pursuing every responsible party the law allows.
Almost entirely. Maritime cases run under federal law rather than state law, provide unique rights like the Jones Act, maintenance and cure, and unseaworthiness that don't exist on land, and involve their own procedures and deadlines. They also often let an injured worker recover far more than a land-based comp claim would allow.
These differences cut in the injured person's favor when the case is handled by someone who knows maritime law, and against them when it isn't. A lawyer unfamiliar with admiralty rules can leave a seaman with a fraction of what the law provides, or miss a claim entirely. Our maritime injury attorneys live in these federal rules, so nothing the law offers gets left behind.
It depends on which maritime laws apply, but often the full range of damages. A seaman under the Jones Act and unseaworthiness can recover medical care, lost wages and future earning power, pain and suffering, and the cost of long-term care, along with maintenance and cure. A longshore worker receives benefits and may add a third-party claim, and a passenger can recover for a vessel's negligence.
Because maritime injuries are so often severe, the future costs, surgeries, lifelong care, and lost earning power usually dwarf the immediate bills, and the employer's or insurer's first offer never reflects them. Our maritime injury lawyers build the full value with the right medical and economic experts and pursue it under whichever maritime laws give you the strongest claim.
The family may have a claim under the maritime wrongful death rules, which are their own specialized area. When a worker or passenger is killed on navigable waters, federal maritime law provides a path for the family to recover, and the specific rules depend on where the death occurred and who the person was. These claims are distinct from an ordinary wrongful death case.
Our wrongful death lawyer page explains how wrongful death claims work generally, and our maritime injury attorneys handle the added complexity when a death happens on the water. We pursue these cases with the care a grieving family deserves, while holding every responsible party accountable under the maritime rules that apply.
Usually three years for a Jones Act or general maritime injury claim, but shorter deadlines and notice requirements can apply, so it's a mistake to wait. Longshore and harbor claims require prompt notice and filing under their own rules, and a claim involving a government vessel can carry special, shorter deadlines. Missing a maritime deadline can end a claim.
Because the deadline depends on the type of claim and the parties involved, this isn't something to assume. Maritime evidence also disappears fast, since vessels move, logs and equipment change, and employers investigate quickly. The sooner our maritime injury lawyers can act to preserve the evidence and identify every deadline, the stronger your case.
Report the injury and get medical care, then be careful what you sign. Report the accident to your employer or the vessel operator and make sure it's documented, get prompt medical treatment, and note witnesses and what caused the injury. Be very cautious about signing statements or accepting early payments from an employer or insurer before you talk to a maritime lawyer.
Maritime employers and their insurers move fast, and an injured seaman is sometimes asked to give a recorded statement or sign a document before understanding their rights. Those early steps can undercut a claim worth far more. Getting our maritime injury attorneys involved early protects the evidence, preserves your maintenance and cure, and keeps an employer from resolving a serious claim on the cheap.
Our maritime injury lawyers start by identifying which maritime laws apply, then pursue every claim the facts support. From the beginning, our attorneys establish the injured person's status, seaman, longshore worker, or passenger, preserve the vessel and accident evidence, and secure the maintenance and cure a seaman is owed.
Our maritime injury attorneys build the Jones Act, unseaworthiness, longshore, and third-party claims that fit the case, gather the logs, maintenance records, and inspection history, and work with marine and medical experts to prove both fault and the full extent of the injuries. Our team pursues every responsible party and prepares each case as if it's going to trial, because that's what commands a serious offer. Most cases resolve through negotiation or mediation, but our maritime injury lawyers build every one for trial, and our firm keeps these matters in house from start to finish.
Our maritime injury lawyers represent injured workers, passengers, and grieving families across Western New York, and our firm handles maritime cases the same way it handles every case, in house, start to finish, through settlement, trial, and appeal. Our attorneys understand the federal admiralty rules, the Jones Act, and the special rights that make these claims their own kind of case.
These cases reward a firm that knows maritime law inside and out, acts fast to preserve the evidence, and isn't intimidated by a marine employer's legal team. That's what our maritime injury attorneys bring, along with straight answers in plain language, so you always know where your case stands. You focus on healing. Our team will handle the investigation and the fight.
If you were injured on the water or the waterfront, or lost someone you love in a maritime accident, in Buffalo or Western New York, the attorneys at Rosenthal, Kooshoian & Lennon, LLP are ready to help. Contact us for a free consultation, and a Buffalo maritime injury lawyer will review what happened, explain which maritime laws apply, and lay out your options, with no fee unless we recover for you.
Don't wait, because maritime claims carry short deadlines and evidence that disappears quickly. The sooner our maritime injury lawyers start, the more our team can do to preserve the proof, protect your maintenance and cure, and pursue the full recovery you and your family deserve. Whether you were a seaman, a dock worker, or a passenger, our attorneys will pursue your claim under the maritime laws that give you the strongest recovery.
Call us 24/7 at 716-854-1300 to speak with a personal injury lawyer near you, or contact us for a FREE consultation.
Disclaimer: This page is for general information only and isn't legal advice. Reading it doesn't create an attorney client relationship. Maritime and admiralty law is federal, complex, and can change; the principles described reflect the law as of 2026, and how they apply depends on your specific situation. Every case is different, and prior results don't guarantee a similar outcome. For advice about a specific injury, please consult a licensed attorney experienced in maritime law.
Our results are driven by personalized strategies that are hand-crafted to fit your needs.
You’re not just a client to us. You are our partner, and we would be honored to make you our next success story.
As former prosecutors and experienced attorneys, we can anticipate how your case will be handled by the other side and tactics insurance companies will use.