Injury at Sea Attorney in Boston Discusses Important Nationwide Maritime Insurance Companies Issue

In this video, Boston maritime trial lawyer David Anderson offers insight into a common issue facing injured fishermen, merchant seamen and their maritime insurance companies. If you have been injured on the water, discuss your claim and case with a qualified maritime attorney as soon as possible. Latti & Anderson LLP offers free consultations, so contact us today for legal advice as to your potential case.

Video Transcription

It is fairly common in a more serious injury, or an injury that’s taking a little longer to heal, for an insurance company to hire a nurse to attend doctor’s appointments with an injured seaman. That nurse’s roll, to a large extent, is to report back medical information to the insurance company and also to basically encourage the treating doctor to send the individual back to work as quickly as possible. Now, I think with most injuries, pretty much everyone wants to get back to work as soon as they can, but not everybody’s ready to go back as soon as the insurance company wants.

The roll of the nurse there is really not for the benefit for the injured seaman. The nurse’s roll there is really as an advocate for the interest of the insurance company. I would recommend under those circumstances that the injured seaman not allow the nurse to actually go into the examination room with a doctor. The other issue is that if she is in the room, there can’t be any private or confidential communications between the doctor and the individual who got hurt. That’s often a problem. I would recommend not doing something like that.