South Florida Injury Attorney Blog

As a Miramar boating accident attorney, I know Florida typically leads the nation in sheer number of boating accidents, avoidable tragedies that affect both our own citizens and our tourists. That’s why I was pleased to see an Oct. 16 article in the Tallahassee Democrat saying that younger boaters in Florida will soon be required to pass a safety course before they can hit the water. The Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission, which is responsible for regulating recreational boating in our state, made the rule effective Jan. 1, 2010. The FWC also lowered the threshold for an enhanced penalty for boating under the influence to match the DUI threshold of 0.15%.

Under the new requirement, any boater 21 or younger must take an approved safety course to legally operate a boat. They then have 90 days to submit their certificates of completion to receive the boating safety ID card. The requirement expands on an existing boating safety course requirement that applies to people who have committed certain boating infractions or crimes. It also puts Florida in the company of in 41 other states that require boating safety education for at least some boaters, including neighboring Georgia and South Carolina. The Democrat quoted a FWC official saying that boating registrations are increasing in Florida, adding to about a million registered vessels in the state and increasing the need for safety training.

As a Hallandale Beach boating accident lawyer, I’m very pleased that the FWC has taken this step, although I would prefer that the requirement apply to boaters of all ages. The FWC’s accident statistics for 2008, the most recent report available, said that 73% of all boating accidents and 93% of fatal accidents involved boat operators with no boating education. Those statistics make a strong case that training matters. Furthermore, the majority of boats involved in accidents are motor vehicles just like cars and trucks -- but often even bigger. Most of us wouldn’t dream of allowing unlicensed, untrained drivers on the roads, particularly child drivers. The same should be true on the water, where there are no marked lanes and boat operators may be more likely to drink.

Continue reading "New Law Will Require Boaters Under 22 to Complete Boating Safety Course " »

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A Broward County father and son narrowly avoided serious injuries when they were hit by a passing boat, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported July 6. Rudy Perez and his 15-year-old son, Christian Waters-Perez, were snorkeling during the Sunday incident. Fortunately, they weren’t seriously hurt when a 26-foot boat passed overhead, hitting Perez in the head and Waters-Perez in the legs. As required by law, they had their red-and-white dive flag up, warning boaters to stay 100-300 feet away.

According to Perez, he and his son were about 200 yards off the Hollywood coast when a boat with the ironic name Karma hit them. He described it as having a white hull and a light blue canopy over the console. The operator waved at the snorkelers and apologized, but didn’t slow down or stop. Jorge Pino, a spokesman for the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission, said the operator might face criminal charges if found -- but because boat names aren’t necessarily on registrations, a record search may not help. The incident left Perez with a headache and Waters-Perez with a limp, but both said they would be fine.

I am pleased that this accident didn’t cause more serious injuries. As a Fort Lauderdale boating accident lawyer, I know that boats can cause serious damage to a human body -- especially if hitting the hull produces a head injury, or the victim gets tangled in a propeller, both of which can fatally incapacitate a swimmer. However, if these two victims had suffered more serious injuries, the description in the article suggests that the boater would have been at fault. That would make him or her legally liable in any Aventura boating accident lawsuit the family might choose to file.

Continue reading "Police Looking for Boat Involved in Hit-and-Run Accident With Pembroke Pines Snorkelers" »

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The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that a former seaman injured on the job may sue his ex-employer for refusing to pay his medical bills and maintenance, the Florida Times-Union reported June 26. The ruling means that Eddie Townsend may continue his lawsuit against former employer Atlantic Sounding, including a claim for punitive damages intended to punish serious wrongdoing. In the 5-4 decision, the majority wrote that the Jones Act, which allows people injured in maritime jobs to sue their employers for medical care and replacement wages, allows punitive damages when employers show “willful and wanton disregard” for their obligations.

Townsend was working on a tugboat at the port of Fort Lauderdale when a fallen line knocked him to the deck, breaking his shoulder. When he told his supervisor, he was told he would be fired if he reported the injury. He tried to work the next day but couldn’t, so he reported his injury anyway -- and was fired, just as predicted. His employer, Atlantic Sounding, refused to pay his medical bills or maintenance while he recovered, on the grounds that he had left the boat. (Most Florida employers must offer both of these benefits through the Florida workers’ compensation system.) With no health insurance, he wound up living in his car in North Florida. Eventually, he sued Atlantic Sounding.

The Jones Act, formally known as the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, is a form of workers’ compensation for sailors and others who work in navigable waters. It allows seamen like Townsend, who were injured at work, to sue employers whose carelessness caused or contributed to the accident. All such claimants can claim money to pay their medical bills and living expenses while they cannot work. Federal appeals courts had split over whether they could also claim punitive damages -- payments intended to punish and deter lawbreaking -- in cases involving injuries and maintenance pay. The Supreme Court resolved that split with last week’s ruling, saying they can.

As a Fort Lauderdale boating accident attorney, I am delighted with this ruling. Firing someone for reporting an accident literally adds insult to injury, and Atlantic Sounding’s actions would have been illegal for most Florida employers. That makes this case extremely appropriate for punitive damages. Thanks to this ruling, Townsend can claim the true cost of his injuries -- not just the medical care and reduced wages that would have allowed him to make ends meet while he recovered, but damages for his wrongful firing and the troubles he faced afterward. The ruling doesn’t necessarily mean that Townsend will win his case or collect a large amount of money, but it means that if he does win, he will be able to claim fuller, more appropriate compensation that recognizes Atlantic Sounding’s serious wrongdoing.

Continue reading "Supreme Court Allows Florida Man to Claim Punitive Damages in Jones Act Lawsuit Over Workplace Injury" »

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A trial has begun in Naples in a lawsuit alleging that design defects were responsible for a woman’s disabling and disfiguring injuries, the Naples Daily News reported June 8. Audrey Decker, 64, and her husband, 66-year-old Fred Decker, are suing boat engine manufacturer Boston Whaler over a 1999 accident in which Audrey Decker fell overboard, sustaining serious injuries when her body became entangled with the boat’s propeller. The case was contentious, with the judge in the case repeatedly warning defense attorneys that they would be penalized if they continued to reargue settled issues or personally attack the plaintiffs’ attorneys.

Fred Decker was cited for careless operation of his boat that day, with alcohol involvement, but no charges were filed. However, the Deckers’ claim is a South Florida products liability lawsuit, which means that the reason Audrey Decker fell overboard isn’t being disputed. Instead, the couple alleges that the boat was defectively designed because manufacturers didn’t include a propeller guard, an inexpensive part that keeps objects out of the path of the propeller’s sharp blades. The judge ruled that the case is about the “crashworthiness” of the boat -- meaning that, because boating accidents are foreseeable, the question is whether the manufacturer did enough to forestall serious injuries in accidents.

A June 6 article from the Daily News details the injuries Audrey Decker suffered in the accident. She lost her left eye, her left breast and part of her nose and lip in the accident. Doctors saved her left arm, but it’s heavily scarred and the slightest touch causes her pain because of nerve damage. Her face is heavily scarred and disfigured by the loss of fat and bone. She has had 40 operations since the accident, but children and adults still stare sometimes, making her reluctant to leave the house. She takes pain medication regularly and needs help performing household tasks. She can no longer work, and the Deckers sold their home to pay some of her medical bills, living in a trailer for two years before they could afford another.

The Daily News cited federal statistics saying Americans had 80 accidents with boat propellers in 2007, causing seven deaths and 75 injuries. As a Pompano Beach boating accident lawyer, I know that’s a tiny fraction of boating accidents -- the U.S. Coast Guard reported 685 deaths from recreational boating in the same year. The same report said 485 people fell overboard from any cause, suggesting that it’s easy for boating companies and boat parts manufacturers to anticipate falling-overboard accidents. As with all manufacturers in Florida, these boating manufacturers are legally obligated to design products that don’t pose an unreasonable risk, including a risk from a foreseeable accident. If they fail in that duty, victims have the right to hold them responsible for the results with a Miami-Dade product defects lawsuit.

If you or someone you love was seriously hurt in South Florida by flaws in any consumer product, you have the right to hold the manufacturer legally liable for the results. That includes design flaws, manufacturing problems and failure by the manufacturer to warn you about the dangers of using the product. Cohn, Smith & Cohn can help. Our Cape Coral defective product lawyers have more than 25 years of experience helping Floridians get justice after a serious accident. We can help victims win the money they need to pay medical bills; make ends meet while they cannot work; and compensate them for the painful and sometimes lifelong effects of a serious injury.

Our Davie product defect attorneys offer free, confidential consultations to all potential clients. To set one up, please call our main Hollywood office at (954) 431-8100 or contact us online today.

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The Coast Guard has ended its efforts to find a young man from Louisiana who fell overboard on a cruise ship, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported May 27. Bruce O’Krepki fell from the Carnival Fantasy 150 miles southwest of Tampa at around 9:45 on Sunday night, the article said. The Coast Guard had searched more than 5,000 miles of the Gulf of Mexico for him, but stopped their efforts two days after the accident, on Tuesday night.

O’Krepki was on a cruise celebrating his graduation from St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Hammond, Louisiana, with 30 classmates and family members, including his own parents. After leaving from New Orleans, the ship was headed for Key West. A soccer and track player, O’Krepki had planned to attend Louisiana State University, where an older brother is a student, on an academic scholarship.

The article doesn’t give enough details about the accident to judge how it could have happened. But as a Broward County cruise ship accident lawyer, I hope O’Krepki’s loved ones are doing everything they can to preserve evidence if they believe the cruise ship line was at fault. Cruise ships spend most of their time in deep waters, outside the jurisdiction of the state of Florida, and they typically have their passengers sign contracts that give them just one year after an accident to file any lawsuit (and restrict them to a court of the cruise company’s choice). That means passengers must move very quickly to preserve the evidence and their right to sue after an accident.

Fort Lauderdale cruise ship accident lawsuits are particularly complicated to pursue because normal personal injury laws don’t generally apply to them. Florida state law no longer applies when a ship is more than three miles off Florida’s coast. Depending on the location of the ship, the port it left from and its registered home port, federal maritime law and one or more foreign countries’ laws might apply instead. Sorting out the right laws, preserving victims’ right to sue and properly valuing a claim for a cruise ship accident can be difficult and time-consuming, which is another reason experts tell victims to contact a cruise ship attorney as soon as possible.

Our firm, Cohn, Smith & Cohn, represents victims of cruise ship injuries and their families in lawsuits over serious injuries and criminal assaults on ship. Our Miami cruise ship accident lawyers represent people from around the United States in Florida federal and state courts. We can help victims recover compensation for their injuries, pain, suffering and all of the financial costs of the accident. If you or a loved one was injured by the carelessness of a cruise ship company or employee, we can help. To learn more at a free consultation, please contact us online or call our main Hollywood office at (954) 431-8100.

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In possibly the most serious boating accident Florida has seen in 15 years, a crash between a 22-foot vessel and a tugboat killed five people, the Florida Times-Union reported April 16. The newspaper said the pleasure craft was carrying 14 people when it hit a 25-foot tugboat anchored at a dock construction site near Palm Valley. The crash killed five people and injured nine others, throwing many into the water. Nobody was on board the tugboat. Investigators from the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission are investigating the cause of the accident.

Initial reports suggested that authorities were investigating the tugboat. However, the Times-Union reported that the 22-foot boat, which is rated for only 12 passengers, was overloaded with the 14 people on board. Rescuers also found alcohol aboard, the newspaper said, although it is not clear who may have consumed it. A spokesman for Fish & Wildlife also said that speed was likely a factor, given the amount of damage to the vessels. Authorities have already interviewed the crash survivors who were able to talk about the accident, but expect the full investigation to take quite a while. The National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating along with Fish & Wildlife, said its investigation could take a year.

It’s clearly too soon to say whether carelessness or intoxication contributed to this accident. But if it did, victims and their loved ones would be entitled to file a Florida boating accident lawsuit against the person or people responsible for the bad decisions. In addition to the possibility that someone may have been boating under the influence -- a criminal charge in Florida -- there is also the possibility that inexperience and overloading the boat caused or contributed to the accident. And because the crash took place in a dock construction site, a good South Florida boating accident lawyer should also look into whether the construction site and tugboat were well-marked and compliant with all safety regulations.

If you or someone you love was seriously hurt in a Florida boat crash like this one, our firm, Cohn, Smith & Cohn, can help. Serious accidents can leave their victims with severe financial hardships as well as debilitating injuries, pain or grief. In a Miami-Dade boating accident lawsuit, these victims can win the money they need to pay their medical or funeral bills and other costs of the accident, make up for lost wages and compensate them for their losses, injuries, pain and suffering. To learn more about your options and your rights at a free consultation, please contact Cohn, Smith & Cohn online or call today at (954) 431-8100.

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Fourteen customers of Celebrity Cruise Lines who were seriously injured in a bus accident overseas returned to Florida for treatment, the Miami Herald reported Feb. 26. The passengers were injured on a road near Roseau, Dominica, when the driver of the open-air “makeshift bus” they were riding in lost control and slammed into a ditch. The driver, an employee of a company that contracts with Celebrity, told reporters that the brakes on the vehicle failed. Five of the passengers were listed in critical condition and two in serious condition, the Herald said. All of the injured people are U.S. citizens.

Accidents involving cruise ships are a complicated subject, even for a Fort Lauderdale cruise ship attorney like me. Cruise ship companies routinely hand their passengers a very complex contract to sign -- and buried somewhere in that contract is language that limits their legal liability. Furthermore, accidents on shore excursions like this may be subject to local law, while accidents on board ship could be governed by federal maritime law. However, many contracts specify that cruise ship injury claims should be heard in South Florida, and the ship’s home country’s law may also apply. And when a third party is involved, such as the company that employed the driver, multiple parties and their insurance companies could share legal responsibility for the accident.

For those reasons, the deck is already stacked against people who are considering a cruise ship accident claim in Miami or anywhere else. On top of this, cruise ship contracts often set a shorter deadline by which you must sue than the deadline (statute of limitations) set by Florida state law. Filing in the wrong court, or waiting too long to file, could limit your ability to sue at all if you’re not careful. And of course, passengers who were seriously hurt on a cruise are already dealing with their injuries, medical needs and the financial problems that can result.

That’s why experts recommend that people who were seriously injured on cruise ships get help from an experienced South Florida cruise ship accident attorney. At Cohn, Smith & Cohn, we have represented accident victims throughout South Florida for nearly 25 years. Based in Pembroke Pines, we represent clients throughout the state who have been seriously injured or lost a loved one through another person or organization’s negligence. If this sounds like your situation and you’re ready to fight back, we offer free, confidential consultations to help you get started. To set one up, please contact us as soon as possible.

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Thanks to statistics from the U.S. Coast Guard (PDF), Floridians know that we have the highest number of boating accidents in the United States. Given our wealth of coastline and waterways, maybe that’s not surprising -- after all, there aren’t many boating opportunities in Kansas. But as a personal injury lawyer in South Florida who’s handled many boating accident lawsuits, I’ve hoped and believed that we can do better.

For that reason, I was pleased to read in an article on the Web site of Miami’s CBS 4 that we may have some good news at the end of this year. The main part of the article is about the tragic death of recreational boater David McMillan, who was just 34. My sympathies go out to his family and friends. But further down in the article, we learn that a $350,000 boating safety awareness campaign by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission may be paying off. CBS reported that boating-related deaths are actually on track to drop in Florida for the third year in a row. As of early August, the article said, there were 32 boating deaths in the year 2008 in Florida, compared to 54 during the same time in 2007.

In fact, according to the FWC, the rate of fatal accidents has been declining since 2005, when 80 fatalities were reported for the entire year. And that’s true even though the number of registered vessels in Florida is increasing. As the agency points out as part of its Wear It Florida campaign , the majority of boaters involved in fatal accidents are actually older people with substantial boating experience -- not drunk, inexperienced or speeding kids. Most often, they know how to swim, but aren’t wearing the life jacket that could save them when they grow tired or are knocked unconscious.

The FWC’s and Coast Guard’s statistics both track recreational vessels only -- meaning that accidents involving cruise ships and other commercial vessels aren’t part of those numbers. And because cruise ships can be dangerous places that aren’t always held accountable by Florida law, I would certainly prefer to see them tracked in some way. But despite that omission, it’s cheering to hear that our state’s safety campaign is working. Let’s hope 2008 and 2009 continue this trend.

If you or someone you love was hurt in a boating accident or injured on a cruise ship off Florida’s coast, contact Cohn, Smith & Cohn for a free evaluation of your legal claim.

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