Maintenance & Cure Under the Jones Act... Part II
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Maintenance and Cure Under the Jones Act - Part II
When do these benefits terminate? Similar to other settings such as no-fault auto claims or workers' comp, maintenance and cure end when the patient has reached Maximum Medical Improvement, or MMI. This is a determination made by a physician hired by the insurance carrier. It basically means that the injury victim will not see further improvement from continuing to treat. It doesn't say the victim has recovered from their injuries - only that their condition is not expected to improve further, whether treatment is continued or not.
Not very long ago, maintenance & cure benefits were often out of touch with the cost of living in large cities. The benefits used to be at a level that was not sufficient to live on. Mercifully, this has changed. Benefits today are more in touch with the cost of living in the twenty first century, where home mortgages easily exceed a thousand dollars a month, car insurance can run close to two-thousand a year, and groceries and utilities can take a big bite out of the remaining funds in the average household budget.
Maintenance & Cure are vital benefits that courts take seriously on every level... federal district courts, appellate courts, and even the Supreme Court, shown by one of its decisions involving a seaman encountering difficulty in getting these benefits. Read more about punitive damages involving maintenance and cure in the Supreme Court's decision in Atlantic Sounding Co. v. Townsend, 557 U.S. 404, 129 S. Ct. 2561
Not very long ago, maintenance & cure benefits were often out of touch with the cost of living in large cities. The benefits used to be at a level that was not sufficient to live on. Mercifully, this has changed. Benefits today are more in touch with the cost of living in the twenty first century, where home mortgages easily exceed a thousand dollars a month, car insurance can run close to two-thousand a year, and groceries and utilities can take a big bite out of the remaining funds in the average household budget.
Maintenance & Cure are vital benefits that courts take seriously on every level... federal district courts, appellate courts, and even the Supreme Court, shown by one of its decisions involving a seaman encountering difficulty in getting these benefits. Read more about punitive damages involving maintenance and cure in the Supreme Court's decision in Atlantic Sounding Co. v. Townsend, 557 U.S. 404, 129 S. Ct. 2561