Knee Injury Lawyers for Seamen & Maritime Workers

Your knees take the punishment of life at sea. Every ladder climbed in heavy weather, every trip across a wet, pitching deck, every hour kneeling at a processing station or bracing against a swell loads the joint in ways shoreside workers never experience. When a knee gives out at sea — a torn ACL from a slip on a slick deck, a shredded meniscus from a twist under load, a shattered kneecap from a fall down a ladder — the injury threatens more than your season. It threatens your career on the water.

The Seattle maritime injury lawyers at Kraft Davies Olsson PLLC have spent decades representing Jones Act seamen, commercial fishermen, tug and barge crews, Washington State Ferry workers, and merchant mariners with serious knee injuries. We know the vessels, the equipment, and the companies — and we know how to prove that an unsafe condition or negligent practice, not bad luck, put you in the operating room. Call 206.624.8844 for a free consultation.

How Knee Injuries Happen on Vessels

Knee injuries at sea rarely come from a single freak event. They come from working conditions that vessel owners have a legal duty to keep reasonably safe. In our decades of maritime practice across Washington, Oregon, and Alaska, we see the same mechanisms again and again:

Slips and Falls on Wet or Contaminated Decks

Fish slime, hydraulic oil, ice, and standing seawater turn steel decks into skating rinks. A slip where the foot goes one way and the body goes another generates exactly the twisting force that tears the ACL and meniscus. Vessel owners are responsible for maintaining non-slip deck surfaces, adequate drainage, and reasonable housekeeping — and when they don’t, the vessel may be unseaworthy as a matter of law.

Ladder, Stair, and Gangway Falls

Missing a rung on a vertical ladder into a fish hold or engine room, or catching a heel on a poorly lit stairway, drives enormous compressive force through the knee on landing. Fractured kneecaps, tibial plateau fractures, and dislocations are common results. We have deep experience with access, gangway, and ladder injury claims, including falls from ladders on Alaska fishing boats and unsafe tug and barge ladders and stairs.

Heavy Lifting and Twisting Under Load

Muscling crab pots, hatch covers, tote bins, and mooring lines while the deck moves beneath you loads the knee joint asymmetrically. Unsafe lifting practices — inadequate crew, missing mechanical assists, production pressure that forces shortcuts — are negligence, not the cost of doing business.

Crossing Between Vessels and Working Cargo

Jumping from a tug to a barge, stepping across to a raft of logs, or working around moving deck machinery and cargo exposes crews to crush injuries, hyperextension, and awkward landings that destroy knee ligaments.

Being Struck on Deck

Swinging crane loads, parting lines, runaway carts on ferry car decks, and shifting cargo all strike workers at knee height. Direct-blow injuries frequently fracture the patella or rupture the PCL.

Common Knee Injuries in Maritime Work

We regularly handle maritime claims involving:

• ACL, PCL, and MCL tears — ligament ruptures that typically require reconstructive surgery and months of rehabilitation before a return to sea duty is even considered.
• Meniscus tears — cartilage damage from twisting injuries, often requiring arthroscopic surgery. Defense doctors love to call these “degenerative”; we know how to prove the traumatic cause and, where degeneration exists, the legal rule that your employer takes you as it finds you.
• Patellar (kneecap) fractures and dislocations — common in falls onto steel decks and down ladders.
• Tibial plateau fractures — high-energy fractures at the top of the shin bone that destabilize the entire knee and frequently lead to post-traumatic arthritis.
• Post-traumatic arthritis and total knee replacement — many serious knee injuries set a seaman on the road to joint replacement years down the line. Future surgical costs belong in the valuation of your claim now, not as an afterthought.

Why Knee Injuries End Maritime Careers

A knee that cannot be trusted is a liability at sea — to you and to your crewmates. Fitness-for-duty standards for seamen demand the ability to climb vertical ladders, ascend and descend stairways in heavy weather, kneel and squat in tight machinery spaces, brace on a moving deck, and respond to emergencies. Many injured mariners can return to some work ashore but can never again pass a fit-for-duty physical or the practical demands of the job.

That is why maritime knee injury claims are often, at bottom, wage loss claims. The difference between a deckhand’s or engineer’s earnings at sea and what the same worker can earn ashore — projected over a working lifetime — is frequently the largest element of damages. Our firm works with vocational and economic experts to prove that loss fully, and our verdicts and settlements reflect that approach.

Your Legal Rights After a Knee Injury at Sea

Injured seamen have remedies that land-based workers do not. Depending on the facts of your case, you may have three separate claims:

Maintenance and Cure

If you were injured or fell ill in the service of the vessel, your employer owes you maintenance and cure regardless of fault. Cure means payment of your medical treatment — imaging, surgery, hardware, physical therapy, pain management — until you reach maximum medical improvement. Maintenance means a daily allowance for your food and lodging ashore while you recover. Companies routinely underpay maintenance rates and cut off cure early; we hold them to their obligations, and the law allows additional damages and attorney fees when an employer willfully refuses to pay.

Jones Act Negligence

The Jones Act gives seamen a claim against their employer when negligence played any part — even the slightest — in causing injury. Slippery decks, inadequate lighting, missing handholds, undermanned operations, production pressure, and negligent crewmates all qualify.

Unseaworthiness

Under general maritime law, a vessel owner owes an absolute duty to provide a seaworthy vessel — one whose decks, ladders, equipment, and crew are reasonably fit for their intended use. A defective ladder rung, worn non-skid, or an inadequately trained crew can render a vessel unseaworthy even without negligence.

Jones Act and unseaworthiness damages include past and future lost wages and benefits, medical expenses beyond cure, retraining costs, and compensation for pain, disability, and loss of enjoyment of life.

What to Do After a Knee Injury on a Vessel

1. Report the injury immediately to the captain or your supervisor and make sure it is entered in the vessel log or an accident report. Read what you sign — and don’t guess at facts you don’t know.
2. Get medical attention as soon as possible, and describe exactly how the injury happened. The first medical records carry enormous weight later.
3. Document the scene if you can — photos of the deck condition, the ladder, the equipment, and your injuries.
4. Get names of witnesses, including crewmates who saw the conditions even if they didn’t see the injury itself.
5. Do not sign a release or give a recorded statement to the company or its insurance adjuster before speaking with a maritime lawyer. Fishing and shipping companies move quickly to limit their exposure while injured crew are still in pain and worried about money.
6. Call an experienced maritime injury lawyer. Evidence disappears, vessels sail, and memories fade. Early investigation wins cases.

Why Injured Mariners Choose Kraft Davies Olsson PLLC

Maritime knee injury cases are won on industry knowledge. Our lawyers have over 65 years of combined experience representing injured crew against many of the largest fishing, tug, ferry, and shipping operations in Washington, Oregon, and Alaska — from factory trawlers and longliners in the Bering Sea to commercial fishing and processing vessels, tugs and barges in Puget Sound, Washington State Ferries, and cruise ships sailing from Seattle. We also represent workers hurt in port, pier, and dock injuries throughout the region.

We know the difference between a deck that was reasonably maintained and one that wasn’t. We know the safety management systems these companies adopt and abandon. And we know how to present the full career and human cost of a knee injury to an insurance company, a mediator, or a jury.

We handle every case on a contingent fee — no fee unless we make a recovery for you — and the consultation is free. If you cannot come to our Seattle office, we will come to you.

Frequently Asked Questions About Maritime Knee Injuries

Free Consultation With a Maritime Knee Injury Lawyer

If you suffered a knee injury working on a fishing vessel, tug, barge, ferry, cargo ship, or any other vessel — or as a passenger on a cruise ship — contact the maritime injury lawyers at Kraft Davies Olsson PLLC today. Call 206.624.8844 or contact us online for a free, no-obligation case evaluation. We are available 24/7, we travel to you, and there is no fee unless we win.