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You CAN select your own treating doctor under the Jones Act

As an injured seaman, you have a right to choose your own doctor. Employers will generally try to send their injured employees to a doctor of their own choosing, as company doctors will try to minimize an employers’ losses (oftentimes to the detriment of the injured employee).

It is important to remember that a Jones Act employer cannot demand that an injured seaman see only a doctor of the employer’s own choosing-the law permits the seaman to see a doctor that he believes will provide him with the best medical care for his injuries. Furthermore, shipowners/employers have a duty to promptly provide any necessary first aid treatment to seamen falling ill or suffering injury in service of the ship, but may not prohibit an injured employee from seeking additional medical care from another practitioner.

For example, in Turner v. Inland Tugs Co. [click here to read case], an employer argued that a seaman injured aboard his vessel was not entitled to compensation because the seaman chose to stop seeing the company physician and began treatment with a doctor of his own choosing. The court reiterated that under the Jones Act, an injured employee’s treatment is not restricted solely to that of the company doctor, but rather the employee may seek out alternate medical treatment as he sees fit.

It is important to know your rights when you are injured on the water-under the Jones Act, you have the right to make your own decisions about the necessary medical care you deserve.

Contact the Louisiana Maritime Lawyers at The Young Firm if you have any questions at all regarding your rights! We have been helping injured Louisiana Jones Act and maritime workers for years. Your case is about more than your injury; your case as about your future.