Whatever the reason, whether a premature maximum medical improvement declaration, payments that simply stopped without explanation, or a daily rate so low it does not cover your actual expenses, you are now recovering from a serious injury without the support the law absolutely requires your employer to provide.
That is not acceptable. And it is not final.
The Maritime Injury Law Firm explains what maintenance and cure actually is, what your employer is legally required to pay under Louisiana maritime law, and what the consequences are for an employer who wrongfully cuts it off, including the punitive damages exposure that most injured workers do not know exists.
What Maintenance and Cure Actually Means
Maintenance and cure is one of the oldest doctrines in American maritime law, predating the Jones Act by centuries. Under general maritime law, a vessel owner or operator owes any seaman who becomes ill or injured in the service of the vessel two things:
Maintenance: a daily living allowance covering necessary expenses while you recover ashore, including rent or mortgage, utilities, food, and transportation to medical appointments.
Cure: payment of all necessary medical expenses related to your injury, including doctor visits, surgery, hospitalization, physical therapy, diagnostic imaging, medications, and transportation to and from treatment.
Both are owed from the day of your injury through the date you reach maximum medical improvement. Neither depends on who caused the injury. Neither requires proof of your employer’s negligence. They are absolute, unconditional obligations.
What If Maintenance and Cure Was Never Started?
Some injured maritime workers find that their employer never initiates maintenance and cure at all. Maybe the employer claims the injury did not happen on the vessel. Maybe they argue it was pre-existing. Maybe they simply ignore it and wait to see if the worker pursues it.
Failure to initiate maintenance and cure is legally identical to wrongful termination of it. If your employer has not paid a single dollar of maintenance and cure since your injury and you have not reached MMI, they owe you every day from the date of injury forward, plus potential punitive damages if their refusal was willful. Call us immediately.
The longer it goes without a legal response, the more the employer may interpret silence as acceptance.
What Maximum Medical Improvement Actually Means
MMI is the legal threshold at which your employer’s maintenance and cure obligation ends, the point at which further treatment is unlikely to produce meaningful improvement. But your employer does not get to unilaterally declare that you have reached MMI.
Company doctors have a documented pattern of finding MMI prematurely, sometimes before the worker has completed recommended treatment, before a planned surgery, or while still in active rehabilitation. A company doctor’s MMI finding is not binding on you. You have a legal right to seek an independent medical evaluation, and if your own physician believes you have not reached MMI and that further treatment will produce meaningful improvement, that opinion creates a legitimate dispute that can be litigated and won.
The Maintenance Rate Problem
Many offshore employment contracts specify a fixed daily maintenance rate, historically as low as $15 to $35 per day. In 2026 Louisiana, $35 per day does not cover rent, utilities, and food for a recovering worker. Courts have increasingly found that contractually specified maintenance rates must actually cover the worker’s reasonable living expenses. The adequacy of your maintenance rate is a litigable issue.
What Happens When an Employer Wrongfully Cuts Off Maintenance and Cure
You can sue to reinstate payments
If your employer terminates maintenance and cure without legal justification, before you have reached MMI, without a legitimate medical basis, you can bring a claim to force reinstatement and recover the amounts wrongfully withheld. This is a separate action from your Jones Act negligence claim and can proceed independently.
You can recover compensatory damages caused by the cutoff
If the wrongful termination caused you additional harm, such as being unable to afford a necessary surgery or your condition worsening because treatment was delayed, those additional damages are recoverable. The harm caused by the wrongful termination is itself a compensable injury.
You may be entitled to punitive damages and attorney’s fees
When a court finds that an employer’s refusal to pay maintenance and cure was willful and wanton, meaning they knew they owed the obligation and deliberately refused to pay without a legitimate reason, it can award punitive damages designed to punish the employer plus the worker’s attorney’s fees. These remedies are not available in ordinary negligence cases. Employers and their insurers know this, and a well-documented wrongful termination changes the dynamics of the entire litigation.
Common Employer Tactics involving Maintenance and Cure
- Premature MMI declaration by a company doctor who has seen the worker once or twice
- Claiming the injury was pre-existing and therefore not covered, even when the service-connection is clear
- Requiring the worker to repay maintenance and cure as a condition of settlement
- Paying maintenance at an inadequate daily rate and characterizing it as full compliance
- Simply stopping payments without explanation and waiting to see if the worker pursues it
What You Should Do Right Now
- Document everything. Keep every piece of correspondence, including letters, emails, explanation of benefits statements, checks, and direct deposit records. The paper trail is critical evidence.
- Get your own medical evaluation. If you believe the MMI determination was premature, an independent physician’s opinion is the foundation of your challenge to the cutoff.
- Do not sign anything. Employers sometimes present documents framed as maintenance and cure releases that actually waive your entire Jones Act negligence claim. Do not sign any document without legal review.
- Call immediately. The longer a wrongful termination continues without legal response, the more harm accumulates. Call (504) 584-6300.
Questions about your case? Call George Vourvoulias at (504) 584-6300 — free and confidential, 24/7. No fee unless we win.
Frequently Asked Questions About Maintenance and Cure
How long does my employer have to pay maintenance and cure?
From the day of your injury through the date you reach genuine maximum medical improvement. There is no set time limit. If you are still improving medically, you are still owed maintenance and cure. A premature MMI declaration by a company doctor does not end your entitlement.
What is the current maintenance rate?
Maintenance rates vary by employment contract and vessel. Many contracts specify a fixed daily rate, often $35 to $45 per day, but courts have held that contractual rates must cover reasonable living expenses. If your daily rate is genuinely inadequate to cover your basic costs, that inadequacy is a litigable issue.
Can I get punitive damages if my employer cut off maintenance and cure?
Yes, if the cutoff was willful and wanton. The legal standard requires showing the employer knew they owed the obligation and deliberately refused to pay without legitimate justification. When punitive damages are genuinely at stake, settlement dynamics change significantly in the worker’s favor.
My employer said my injury is pre-existing. Do I still get maintenance and cure?
Likely yes. Maintenance and cure covers any illness or injury that manifests or is aggravated during the service of the vessel, including conditions that existed before but were worsened by the incident or the work itself. An employer who denies maintenance and cure solely on a pre-existing condition argument without genuine medical basis may be acting in bad faith.
