Admiralty Lawyers Worldwide.

Admiralty law, also known as maritime law, is a specialized branch of federal law that governs activities on navigable waters. It covers everything from shipping commerce and marine insurance to piracy and recreational boating accidents. Unlike standard state laws, this legal framework focuses on issues unique to the sea, such as “salvage” rights (rewards for saving a ship) and the specific duties ship captains owe to their crew and passengers. It applies to any accident or contract that has a “significant relationship to traditional maritime activity,” meaning a jet ski crash on a large lake often falls under this federal jurisdiction rather than local state law.

Yes, because the rules of the road on the water are fundamentally different from those on land. For instance, a car accident is usually governed by state negligence laws, but a boating accident is governed by federal maritime statutes that may limit the boat owner’s liability to the post-accident value of the vessel—sometimes just the value of a wrecked hull. An admiralty lawyer knows how to navigate these unique “Limitation of Liability” acts and understands the specific “Rules of the Road” (COLREGS) that determine who is at fault when two vessels collide in open water.

The Jones Act is a federal law that protects “seamen”—workers who spend at least 30% of their time in the service of a vessel—by giving them the right to sue their employer for negligence. Unlike land-based workers who are restricted to workers’ compensation (which pays limited benefits regardless of fault), a Jones Act seaman can sue for full lost wages, pain and suffering, and medical costs if the employer’s negligence played even a tiny part in the injury. This protection applies to captains, deckhands, and even cruise ship entertainers, provided they meet the time-at-sea requirement.

The biggest difference is the concept of “Maintenance and Cure,” which is a centuries-old duty requiring shipowners to pay for an injured seaman’s daily living expenses (rent/food) and medical bills until they reach “maximum medical improvement,” regardless of who caused the injury. Additionally, maritime law often uses “pure comparative negligence,” meaning you can still recover damages even if you were 99% at fault for your own injury, whereas many states would bar you from recovering anything if you were more than 50% at fault.

Yes, and you must act fast because cruise tickets contain a strict “contract of carriage” that significantly shortens your legal window. While a normal personal injury lawsuit might have a 3-year deadline, cruise tickets often contractually limit your right to sue to just 1 year and require you to provide written notice of the claim within 6 months. A lawyer helps you file within these tight deadlines and ensures the case is filed in the specific federal court mandated by the ticket (often in Miami or Seattle), preventing your case from being thrown out for being in the wrong venue.

A maritime lien is a powerful legal claim that attaches to the vessel itself rather than its owner. If a ship owner fails to pay for fuel, crew wages, or repairs, the creditor gets a lien on the boat. To enforce it, a lawyer files an “in rem” lawsuit (against the thing, not the person) and has US Marshals physically “arrest” the ship, chaining it to the dock until a bond is posted. This lien travels with the ship even if it is sold to a new owner, meaning you could buy a boat and immediately have it seized for the previous owner’s unpaid debts.

These disputes are typically governed by the Carriage of Goods by Sea Act (COGSA), which strictly limits a carrier’s liability to $500 per package unless a higher value was declared. A lawyer fights over the definition of a “package”—arguing whether a shipping container counts as one package (limiting the payout to $500 total) or if the 1,000 individual boxes inside count as packages (raising the limit to $500,000). They also navigate the “Act of God” and “Perils of the Sea” defenses, where carriers try to avoid paying by claiming the damage was caused by a storm that no captain could have predicted.

Crimes on the “high seas” (international waters) are generally governed by the law of the “Flag State”—the country where the ship is registered. If a crime happens on a US-flagged ship, US federal law applies; if it’s on a Panamanian ship, Panama has jurisdiction. However, for “universal crimes” like piracy or slavery, any nation’s navy can intervene and prosecute the offenders. Additionally, under the “passive personality principle,” a country (like the US) can claim jurisdiction if the victim of the crime is one of its citizens, even if the ship is foreign-flagged.