Boating and water sport activities are both adrenaline pumping and fraught with unique dangers. There is always the risk of drowning. When boat accidents and jet ski accidents occur, thorough investigations and evaluations of their cause(s) by experienced legal teams are always the best way to proceed. Complex legal and safety issues may be involved in a boat accident case. Like other types of accident cases, no one formula can be applied but legal and factual issues should be thoroughly considered, investigated and resolved.
Call a boating accident attorney at Nadrich & Cohen today for a free consultation or text us from this page if you or a loved one were injured in a boat accident. We won’t charge you a fee until and unless we win your case.
Boat Accident Compensation
If you or a loved one has been injured in a boat accident, you may be entitled to financial compensation for multiple types of damages, including:
- Medical bills: Boating accidents can lead to catastrophic injuries which can lead to huge medical bills piling up. You may qualify for compensation for any medical expenses related to your boating accident. This includes medical bills you already owe as well as any medical bills you can be expected to owe in the future due to ongoing treatment.
- Property damage: If you have been involved in a boat accident, which was someone else’s fault, involving your own boat, your boat may have been damaged. You may qualify for compensation for the damage to your boat, or damage to any other property which was caused by your accident.
- Lost wages: Your boat accident may have left you unable to work for some time. Maybe you were simply hurt too bad to work. Maybe you had to miss work to attend medical treatment. Whatever the case, if you have lost wages due to your boat accident, you may be able to obtain compensation for those wages.
- Loss of earning capacity: You might be unable to ever work again because of your boat accident, or you might be unable to ever do the job you used to do again. You have legal recourse, if so. You may be able to recover compensation for any loss of or reduction of your earning capacity caused by your boat accident.
- Pain and suffering: The injuries sustained in boat accidents can lead to physical pain and mental suffering. You may be able to recover compensation for this pain and suffering.
- Wrongful death: Unfortunately, boat accidents are sometimes fatal, and while financial compensation can’t bring your loved one back, it can prevent your loved one’s death from causing your financial distress. You might qualify for compensation for your loved one’s medical bills, funeral costs, burial costs and pain and suffering. You might qualify for compensation for the loss of your loved one’s income, household services, love and companionship.
Do I Need A Boat Accident Lawyer?
The person at fault for a boat accident rarely ends up paying any money in a boat accident lawsuit. Rather, their insurance company usually ends up paying those hurt in the accident.
California law holds those who injure others via negligence liable for the injuries, which means the negligent party’s insurance company is supposed to pay for all damages, up to policy limits, caused by the accident. However, the only way injury victims can make insurance companies pay them what they’re entitled to under the law is to sue them if the insurance company offers less than what they’re entitled to. Insurance companies know you can’t sue them and win if you’re not represented by an experienced boating accident lawyer. Thus, if you don’t have a lawyer, they simply won’t offer you what you are entitled to. They’ll offer you a small fraction of what you deserve in order to protect their own profit margin.
You need strong, battle-tested boat accident attorneys like Nadrich & Cohen by your side if you want the insurance company to pay you what you’re entitled to for your injuries. Most of our cases settle out of court because insurance companies know about our long record of success. They know that if we take them on in court, we’ll win, so they settle out of court with us to avoid having to pay expensive legal fees in a court case. Hiring us sends a message to the insurance companies that you can and will make them pay you what you deserve.
In addition, the at fault party’s insurance company will do whatever they can to pay you as little money as possible. This includes trying to trick you into saying things they can take advantage of to pay you as little as possible. For this reason, you should never talk to the at fault party’s insurance company, because it’s dangerous to do so. Their adjusters are literally trained to manipulate you into saying the things they want you to say while you’re being recorded. Leave talking to the insurance companies to us. We’ll handle all communications and negotiations with insurance companies for you so you can focus on recovering from your injuries without having to worry about incriminating yourself.
Boat Accident Claims And Injuries
Boating accident claims can involve complex legal and technical issues. The following are a few important legal, factual and evidentiary matters that should be considered when evaluating a claim.
- What was the specific activity being performed?
- When and where was it being performed?
- What were the circumstances of the accident?
- Was it age appropriate for the person involved?
- Was the activity properly supervised?
- Was the activity private in nature or was it business related?
- Was the activity part of a commercial rental business?
- Were operator’s trained in lifesaving techniques, such as CPR?
- Was safety equipment available?
- Was there an ability to immediately notify medical personnel in the event of injury?
- Was there any special equipment being used?
- Was the equipment in disrepair or properly maintained or otherwise unsafe?
- Was defective equipment involved?
- Was the equipment subject to any recalls?
- Did the injured participant sign a waiver or release of liability before engaging in the activity?
- Were they competent to do so?
- How long did the injured party wait before pursuing their claim?
- Are there any peculiar legal requirements for the jurisdictions where the accident occurred?
- Were there any witnesses to the accident?
- Were any photographs or videos taken of the accident?
- Was the accident investigated by government authorities?
An injury that occurs on or with a boat is considered a boating accident. A boating accident can occur on someone’s privately owned boat, a cruise ship, a personal watercraft (jet ski), or a ferry. It is a general rule of the law that the operator of a boat and its owner have a duty to exercise the highest degree of care in order to prevent boating injuries to others. The most common boating accidents are collisions with other boats, slip and falls on the boat, sinking and boat disappearance. Most boating accidents occur because of a reckless or careless operator, boat malfunctions or an inexperienced operator. Our boating accident attorneys have handled numerous lawsuits against the boat owners, boat operators, personal watercrafts and cruise ships.
Boating Accidents And Negligence
We can obtain a boating accident financial recovery for you by proving to insurance companies (and a court, if necessary) that your accident and injuries were caused by the negligence of someone else.
Negligence is the failure to be reasonably careful to prevent harm from occurring. We can prove to insurance companies and courts that our clients’ injuries were caused by someone not behaving as a reasonably careful person would behave in the same situation.
Proving negligence is the bread and butter of personal injury law, and our experienced, battle-tested injury lawyers have been successfully proving negligence since 1990. We’ve recovered over $350,000,000 for our clients in that time by proving the negligence of others.
Contingency Fee Representation
Nadrich & Cohen represents victims of boating accidents on a contingency fee basis. This means we don’t charge a fee to handle your boat accident claim unless and until we recover financial compensation for our clients. Our only fee is a percentage of whatever recovery we obtain for our clients.
We have been handling boat accident cases for over 30 years. We are familiar with maritime law, all boating laws and the intricacies of boat accident cases.
You may be injured, unable to work because of it, and unable to pay your mounting medical bills because you can’t work. The last thing you need right now is the stress and hassle of handling your own boat accident claim. Let us handle every aspect of the long, time-consuming, complicated legal process for you. That way you can focus on what’s important: family and your own recovery.
If you have been injured in a boat accident or jet ski accident, please contact a boat accident attorney at Nadrich & Cohen to allow us to analyze your potential personal injury case. You may be eligible to recover compensation in a boat accident lawsuit. Please contact us for an immediate free evaluation of your potential case, call us today or text us from this page.
