BOUNCED IN A BOAT DO I HAVE A CASE?

At www.888BoatLaw.com, the 25-year Florida boating accident law firm we see a lot of these cases. We refer to them as “wake” cases because the injuries usually occur when a vessel operator encounters a wake generated by another vessel. Though another vessel creates the wake it is usually the operator of the vessel in which passengers are injured that is primarily at fault. While it is true maritime law dictates that a vessel owner is responsible for the damage its wake creates, it is often the second vessel who fails to slow in the face of the oncoming wake, or who takes an improper angle to cross an oncoming wake.

This causes passengers who are in the vessel that strikes the wake to be launched from their seat or standing position into the air and strike vessel on the way back down. We see these “wake” cases routinely cause the following injuries: severe back and neck injuries, head injuries from striking the interior of the vessel, even broken hip or broken pelvis injuries arise from this type of boating accident case.

HOW DO I PURSUE A CASE FOR MY INJURIES?

First you need to find a maritime attorney, not an auto accident attorney. The auto laws do not apply to boating incident cases. In Florida in a “wake” injury case 95% of the time maritime law applies. The reasons you need a maritime attorney are at least two-fold: 1. You will be facing an insurance company that employs maritime defense attorneys on their side; 2. The insurance company is going to know quickly whether your attorney knows maritime laws or does not.

The next aspect is to determine who is at fault for the wake injuries. As stated above, typically the person driving the vessel in which passengers are injured is at fault. This is not to say the wake-creating vessel bears no responsibility, it certainly does. But, in our experience, typically the identity of the other vessel is not known to the injured victim. Therefore, you cannot make a recovery against a vessel owner/operator unless you know their identity. At www.888BoatLaw.com we see that large vessels far away from the wake injury incident create a large wave, but by the time the injury occurs distant from that large vessel the identity of that large vessel is not known to injured boating passengers. This is very common.

WHAT IF THE VESSEL I WAS IN HAD NO INSURANCE?

If the vessel in which you were injured had no insurance, not all is necessarily lost. A great attribute of maritime law is that it considers the vessel itself to be at fault for any torts (i.e., wrongdoings) done by the vessel operator. This means the vessel driven by an at-fault operator can be arrested through the U.S. Marshal’s Office and held as collateral for the damages caused on that vessel. However, your attorney needs to know how to conduct these types of cases. There is no similar context in auto accident cases, and at the www.888BoatLaw.com law firm we know that even few maritime attorneys know how to pursue a vessel that was used to cause injury to a passenger. Auto accident attorneys have no similar remedy under state auto accident laws. You need an experienced maritime attorney to help you with your recovery in your boating accident case.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Severe bodily injury accidents occur on board recreational vessels when the operator strikes a wake or wave at high speed and/or improper angle in that it causes passengers within the vessel to be propelled into the air out of their seats.
• These “wake” injury cases are almost always caused by the operator of the recreational vessel striking the wake (or a large wave) too fast and at an improper angle.
• The vessel creating the large wake is almost always not known, and therefore not a viable defendant.
• There are many options to a passenger injured in a wake case to recover for their injuries if they retain experienced maritime counsel.
• A vessel can be held responsible for the injuries caused by its operator, but only if the attorney you choose knows how to pursue your case correctly.

At www.888BoatLaw.com we know how to pursue your case correctly. We are specialists in maritime law injury cases working only for claimants and never for any insurance company. You can trust our 25 years of successfully recovering for boating accident clients, including many cases involving passengers severely injured in “wake” cases. We know maritime law.

Don’t trust your recreational boat injury incident, or “wake” case to just anyone. Contact the law firm that specializes in this law and is handling these types of cases right now throughout all of Florida. (Check what our clients say about us when you Google 888boatlaw.com reviews.)

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