Lawyer Pages

Attorneys can help you navigate a boating death aftermath

No one wants to be a number, yet numbers don’t lie: The United States has more than 12 million boats and personal water craft, and even though a vast percentage are operated safely, that doesn’t stop thousands of boating accidents from occurring each year.

Hundreds of these accidents involve deaths – perhaps wrongful deaths caused by negligence or alcohol use. If a loved one has suffered death in a boating accident, you may be entitled to a wrongful death lawsuit which recovers damages. Such wrongful deaths may range from working seamen to ferry passengers to those using freshwater jet skis or diving from the side of a boat.

Your options are to pursue compensation via federal maritime law or under a particular state’s wrongful death laws. Statutes of limitations may vary, so you should consult a boating accident attorney immediately. By such means you may gain compensation for lost wages, pain and suffering, or other damages caused by the negligence of others.

Watery woes

Boating accidents can occur with the same frequency on waters as cars accidents occur on comparably traveled roads. Boating accidents normally involve collisions between multiple boats or between boats and docks; jet ski or water skiing mishaps; boats hitting people in the water; and accidents caused by drunk boat drivers.

Since boating often involves recreation, alcohol as a contributor to deaths is common. Boating also often involves dangerous high speeds and lack of sufficient lighting at night.

Other accidents can be caused by defective parts on a boat, which can be the result of negligence by the owner. In other cases, Coast Guard rules of waterways may go unobserved.

Boating isn’t easy

Also a contributor is the fact that many people see boating as easier than driving cars. They underestimate the dangers of driving boats when, in effect, waterways are like vast parking lots with no traffic lines and many vehicles moving indiscriminately. An outing on a lake or other waterway may seem like leisure, but it can be fraught with danger.

While survivors of the victim of a boating accident can’t bring back their loved one, they can file a wrongful death suit. Such survivors should contact an boating accident lawyer to explore their just compensation. Find out more about boating accidents via the News and Views legal blog. Also, contact Jim S. Adler & Associates today for a free case review.

DISCLAIMER: The law firm of Jim S. Adler & Associates, with a principal office found at 3D/International Tower, 1900 West Loop South, 20th Floor, Houston, Texas 77027, is licensed to practice law in Texas. Even so, the law firm also works in conjunction with outside counsel and local lawyers to litigate claims in other states as necessary, including the states of:

Jim S. Adler & Associates also has offices at City Place Building, 2711 North Haskell Ave., Suite 2100 LB40, Dallas, Texas 75204-2887; Bank of America, 12605 East Freeway, Suite 400, Houston, Texas 77015-5619 (serving Channelview, Texas); and San Pedro Plaza, 7330 San Pedro Ave., Suite 700, San Antonio, Texas 78216-6237.

BOATING ACCIDENT ARTICLES...