A LIMITATION OF LIABILITY CASE WAS FILED AGAINST ME, WHAT STEPS DO I NEED TO TAKE NEXT?

First thing, a Limitation of Liability case is a case filed wherein the owner of a vessel (sometimes it is a single owner of a recreational vessel, sometimes it is a boat club, sometimes it is a person or company running an excursion, sometimes it is a person or company running a JetSki or boat rental company) is trying to limit their exposure to all claimants in an incident to the worth of the involved vessel.

A Limitation of Liability will come with a fixed deadline for you to file your claim in federal court.  Caution: Immediately, you need to know your deadline for filing a claim. If you do not timely file and correctly file a claim in federal court then any claim you have can be barred.

WHERE DOES THE LIMITATION OF LIABILITY LAW COME FROM?

It is a law that was originally passed by the U.S. Congress in 1851—well before the Civil War. The intention was to place merchant ships in the U.S. on equal footing with other countries’ merchant vessels by providing a limited financial loss if the owner’s vessel was involved in a casualty that was not the fault of the owner nor the fault of anyone with which the owner had “privity”. The most common scenario was the owner had a vessel, leased (i.e., “chartered”) it out to a 3^rd party which appeared capable and fit to operate that vessel. The owner gave control over the vessel to the 3^rd party. Thereafter, if the vessel was involved in an incident involving injury or property damage the law holds that the owner could seek to have his damages capped at the worth of the vessel. Meaning the owner could not be sued for any of their other assets besides the vessel.

One important distinction here is that the worth of the vessel is its value in its post-casualty (i.e., post-accident) state, and the vessel may not be worth much depending upon the casualty.

KEY POINTS TO KNOW ABOUT A LIMITATION OF LIABILITY IN RELATION TO YOUR BOATING ACCIDENT INJURY CLAIM

• Does this law apply to JetSkis? Yes, it applies even to JetSkis (a/k/a personal watercraft).
• If I do not make a claim what will happen? Any claim you had will be defaulted by the federal court.
• Can I just file a suit against the owner in another court? No, the federal court prohibits filing in any other court against the owner.
• Does the same law for auto crashes apply to Limitation of Liability cases? No. Automobile laws do not apply to this area of law, maritime law applies.
• The owner is trying to limit all claims to the value of the vessel after the casualty. Meaning, if the vessel is a total loss, the owner is trying to limit all claims to that post-accident value. (Think boat crash, boat fire, sinking, etc., where a vessel may have very little value.)
• If your claim is not done correctly it can be rejected by the federal court.
• Once you make a claim in federal court you must fight against the owner’s efforts to limit their exposure to the worth of the vessel, or less.
• Almost all Limitation actions of recreational vessels are initiated by the insurance companies for those vessels; vessel owners rarely this law exists.
• If the boat had a lot of insurance then I am still OK, right? No. You must file a timely and correct claim in the federal court or your claim will be defaulted. The owner is trying to limit the worth of the claim to the post-accident value of the vessel—even if the insurance coverage is well more than the value of the vessel.

CAUTION: If you have a claim for injury or property damage from a boating accident case and a Limitation action has been filed against you, then you must take timely action and file a correct claim or your claim can be forever barred. Do not trust your case to an attorney who has never litigated these types of cases. This is a complex area of maritime law. The insurers and their defense attorneys who initiated this Limitation action are experienced in trying to limit boating accident recoveries in federal court.

Don’t trust your boating or JetSki injury incident case to just anyone. Contact the law firm www.888BoatLaw.com that specializes in this law and is handling these types of cases right now throughout all of Florida. (You can check our reviews from clients if you Google “Frank D. Butler, PA.”)

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