When a seaman is injured at sea, the legal remedies available to them are different from what most workers encounter in a standard employment context. Three of the most foundational remedies in maritime law are maintenance, cure, and unearned wages. They are frequently referenced together, but each one covers something distinct, and understanding what each provides helps injured maritime workers know what they are entitled to and how to pursue it.
Our friends at Goldstein and Price, L.C. work through these situations with clients regularly, and what a maintenance and cure lawyer will tell you is that these three remedies exist independently of fault, meaning a seaman does not need to prove that the shipowner did anything wrong to be entitled to them. That makes them some of the most immediately accessible protections available under maritime law.
What Maintenance Actually Is
Maintenance is a daily living allowance paid to an injured seaman while they are recovering from an injury or illness that occurred in the service of the vessel. It is designed to cover the basic costs of room and board that the seaman would have received had they remained aboard the ship.
The daily rate is not generous by most standards. Historically courts set rates that were modest, and while there has been some upward movement over the years, maintenance payments are generally intended to cover subsistence rather than to fully replace income. The rate is typically established by the shipping contract or, in the absence of a specific contractual provision, by the applicable legal standard in the relevant jurisdiction.
Maintenance continues from the date the seaman leaves the vessel through the point at which they reach maximum medical improvement, which is the stage at which their condition has stabilized and further treatment is unlikely to produce meaningful improvement.
What Cure Actually Is
Cure refers to the shipowner’s obligation to pay for the medical treatment necessary to treat the seaman’s injury or illness. It covers the reasonable cost of medical care, including physician visits, hospitalization, surgery, rehabilitation, medication, and other treatment directly related to the condition that arose during service on the vessel.
The cure obligation runs parallel to maintenance and similarly continues until the seaman reaches maximum medical improvement. At that point the shipowner’s obligation to pay for ongoing treatment under the cure doctrine ends, though the seaman may have separate claims for future medical expenses under other legal theories.
What distinguishes cure from a standard health insurance arrangement is that it is an obligation imposed directly on the shipowner by maritime law, not a contractual benefit that can be limited or conditioned by the terms of an employment agreement.
What Unearned Wages Actually Are
Unearned wages represent the compensation a seaman was entitled to receive for the remainder of the voyage during which the injury occurred. If a seaman is injured and removed from the vessel before the voyage concludes, they are entitled to the wages they would have earned through the end of that voyage even though they were unable to complete it.
This remedy is more limited in duration than maintenance and cure. It covers only the unexpired portion of the contract or voyage, not an extended recovery period. Once the voyage would have concluded, the unearned wages obligation ends.
The three remedies working together provide:
- Daily living support through maintenance during the recovery period
- Payment of medical expenses through cure until maximum medical improvement is reached
- Compensation for lost voyage earnings through unearned wages for the remainder of the interrupted voyage
When These Remedies Are Not Enough
Maintenance, cure, and unearned wages are a baseline. For seamen whose injuries resulted from the negligence of the shipowner or an unseaworthy vessel, additional remedies are available under the Jones Act and general maritime law that can provide significantly greater compensation including damages for pain and suffering, lost future earnings, and other losses.
If you were injured at sea and want to understand the full scope of what you may be entitled to, reaching out to a maritime attorney as early as possible gives you the clearest picture of every remedy available to your situation.