WHAT IS A LIMITATION OF LIABILITY LAWSUIT
A Limitation of Liability lawsuit is a suit filed in federal court and its aim is to limit the payout on a boating, jetski, boat tour, diving excursion, parasail, or commercial vessel, etc., injury case to the worth of the vessel involved after the crash. Specifically, the owner of the vessel files a civil case in federal court after an injury event or even in a death case involving a vessel and seeks to limit the recovery of all claimants to only the worth of the vessel after incident. To be clear, this can involve a vessel which has little to no value if the vessel was involved in a crash or had a fire aboard the vessel.
These Limitation actions are almost 100% brought forth by the insurance company which insures the vessel involved in the incident. Also, the amount of insurance covering the vessel may be well more than the value of the vessel after a crash, but still the effort is to limit the recovery of all claimants to only the value of the vessel—even if the insurance policy on the vessel is more than the value of the vessel.
This was a law passed by Congress in 1851, well before the Civil War. The stated intention of the law was to allow an owner of a vessel to essentially lease out the vessel–known in maritime law as a charter agreement—to a competent third party, and if a casualty occurred with that vessel the most the vessel owner could lose would be the value of the vessel if the vessel owner was without fault for the casualty. That law has now been interpreted to apply not only to commercial vessels, but also to recreational vessels, even down to JetSkis (a/k/a “personal watercraft” or “PWCs”)
Caution, when a Limitation of Liability action is filed a federal judge is going to set a timeline for all claimants to respond. The claimant must: 1. file a claim in the correct federal court within the allotted time, and 2. file a claim correctly, or their claim can be permanently barred.
Who uses these Limitation actions? 1. Insurers who insure recreational boats. 2. Boat Clubs. 3. Commercial companies whose vessels or barges have caused injury to people. 4. Small JetSki rental operations. 5. Small boat rental operations. 6. Peer-to-Peer boat rentals like Boatsetter, GetMyBoat, and other P2P operators. 7. Insurers who insure small JetSki or small boat rental operations. 8. Any owner of a vessel which vessel has been involved in property damage, personal injury or death.
Further caution, these types of matters are not typically handled by auto accident attorneys. The laws applicable to a Limitation of Liability are not auto accident laws, but rather are based on federal maritime laws. Caution is advised to employ a maritime attorney, including one who has actually previously handled these unique but very unique and important cases. A person’s injury case can be lost, or a family’s wrongful death case can be lost if not handled correctly when facing a Limitation of Liability case in federal court.
At www.888BoatLaw.com we have been representing injured boating and JetSki clients. If a Limitation of Liability case is filed against you or family member you need to act quickly; the time to file a claim is limited and the claim can be barred forever if not timely and correctly filed. In these cases you need to employ a law firm which specializes in these types of cases www.888BoatLaw.com is a 25-year law firm representing only injured boating JetSki claimants and persons injured in commercial incidents, and never an insurer.
