Boat Accident Lawyer

Any personal injury on or with a boat, ferry, ship or personal watercraft like a jet ski is regarded as a boating accident. There are thousands of boat accident injuries every year.

Southwest Florida is a boater's paradise, as it is home hosting tens of thousands of registered boaters, including fishermen and recreational boaters.

Open motorboat and personal watercraft injury cases are among the most frequent and rapidly rising in number. This is due in large part to increasing traffic in our waterways combined with an increasing popularity of leisure boating.

If a boating accident results in the disappearance or death of an individual or in an injury requiring more than basic first aid, then it must be reported to state authorities or the Coast Guard within 48 hours under federal law. The reports are then entered into the Boating Accident Report Database (BARD) system.

Locally, a Coast Guard station is based on Fort Myers Beach.  Similarly, first responders to a boat accident may include:

Among other causes, a boat accident injury can result from:

Most boating accident injury cases are due to boat operator negligence. The operator of a boat or vessel is responsible for exercising reasonable care in preventing injury to others, much as is the case with auto or bus drivers. Unfortunately, over 40% of boat accident injury cases involved a boat operator under the influence of alcohol.  And among negligent boat operators, the overwhelming majority never took a boating safety course.

If you or a loved one has been injured in a boating accident, then contact our injury attorneys to discuss your boating accident claim.

Under Florida law, a lawsuit to recover damages must be filed within a limited time period after the occurrence of the boat accident, or the claim will be barred forever.