Who Can Be Sued in a Boating Accident?

Boating Accidents

If you or someone you know was involved in a boating accident, you are probably wondering who exactly can be sued in this unique situation. The answer is a number of individuals and corporations. It largely depends on the specific facts and circumstances of your accident. For example, your case will depend on if you are working on the boat, on the boat at your own leisure, or driving the boat itself. It also depends on who’s negligence and fault caused your injury or injured those around you. If you were at fault and negligent, you can be sued. However, if you were not at fault, you have a wide variety of individuals and companies to pursue a claim against in the event you were substantially hurt in the accident.

Injured at Work

Let’s talk about the commercial side first. If a person is working on a boat and is injured while on the boat, then the employer or operator can be sued through workers’ compensation or just through a legal claim. This is a very fertile area of litigation and injured individuals are typically very successful with claims against their employers or the boat’s operator.

Injured While Boating for Leisure

Another type of case is more of the boating for the pleasure side. If you are out boating with your friend and they had too much to drink and run into another boat or rocks, resulting in your being injured, you can actually sue your friend for things like medical expenses, lost wages, and even pain and suffering compensation. You will not necessarily be suing your friend, but instead their insurance company. If someone else owned the boat that your friend was operating, like your friend’s family member, you can sue the boat’s owner as well.

Injured Because of a Malfunction

The last type of common case is a product malfunction case. This means that something that should have been working on the boat did not work in the way it was intended to or malfunctioned, resulting in your injury. You can then sue the product’s company, as well as its manufacturer.

Keep in mind that you have legal rights after a boating accident that was not your fault, but the longer you wait to take legal action, the harder it may be to gather evidence to strengthen your claim. Taking pictures of the accident site, your injuries, and asking any witnesses for testimonies on what they saw can help your claim significantly.

Contact an Attorney

The first consultation with an attorney where they evaluate your claim and see if it will uphold the process is usually free. Furthermore, once you hire an attorney, it is generally done on a contingency fee basis. In other words, if you do not recover any compensation, you do not owe anything to your attorney. Contact a personal injury attorney, like a personal injury attorney in Longwood, FL, to review your boating accident claim. He or she will do their very best to ensure that you receive the compensation you rightfully deserve and bring justice to whoever was at fault for the accident.

Thanks to David & Philpot, P.L. for their insight into who can be sued in a boating accident.