INJURED IN BOAT RENTAL ACCIDENT IN FLORIDA
If you are injured as a result of a boat rental accident in Florida you need to know the laws that apply to your case, which changed only recently within the last year. The person or company who rents the boats in Florida is known as a “livery”. Florida places requirements on livery operators who rent boats to Florida citizens and rents to people from out of State. Some of those laws deal with the safety equipment the livery must have on the vessel, an explanation of how the vessel operates, an explanation of the local waterway, and the Coast Guard Rules of Road, etc.
Many of the liveries seek to have the renter and sometimes even all of the passengers sign a “waiver” which says: if anyone gets hurt during the boat rental the livery will disclaim any liability for those injuries. You need to have a Florida maritime attorney office on your side to protect you when you have been injured in a Florida boat rental injury case. We the attorneys at www.888BOATLAW.com have been fighting and recovering for injured passengers for more than 25 years. If the attorney you are considering has no idea how to get past the waiver that was signed then your case is likely lost.
Right now many liveries (the people who rent out vessels) are also trying to avoid Florida law—including they try to skip retaining insurance for injuries—by saying that the arrangement between the renter and the livery is a “Charter Agreement”. By making such a claim (“Charter Agreement”) the livery tries to pretend they do not have to abide by Florida law as they rent boats to passengers. The livery may not even talk about insurance with the renter, but under Florida law they are supposed to address that with the boat renter.
In the age of Peer-to-Peer transportation there are several marine versions of boat rentals, and two of the most popular of them are GetMyBoat and BoatSetter. This is akin to AIRBNB where a website hooks up vessel owners and people who want to rent vessels. What has also occurred though, buts gets little press, is that mom-and-pop boat rental businesses are popping up throughout the State of Florida. Some of these mom-and-pop boat rental businesses are not complying with Florida law and most importantly beyond the safety equipment, many are not carrying any insurance. That means if you are injured on the boat rented from the mom-and-pop business they may be operating bare when it comes to liability insurance.
Also, in some of the mom-and-pop businesses, the vessels are not even owned by the fake livery. The rental vessels are routinely owned by others who were talked into allowing their vessel to be used in the mom-and-pop business to make a few dollars. The problem with this goes back to: 1. The fake livery may not be carrying insurance, and 2. The vessel owner’s insurance may not cover the injury because the vessel insurer would say they did not insure the vessel to be used in a business. We at www.888BOATLAW.com have seen that some of these injuries associated with Florida boat rentals can be very serious, including propeller-strike cases, serious bodily injury claims occurring within the rented vessel, injuries caused by collision of the rental boat with another boat or fixed object, and including death cases. You need attorneys who know the law, and how to recover for you.
WHAT IF THE LIVERY SAYS THERE WAS NO INSURANCE FOR A FLORIDA BOAT RENTAL INJURY CASE
At www.888BOATLAW.com because we know maritime law—which is wholly different than car accident law—we know that the injured person can still have remedies they can pursue even if the boat rental company did not carry insurance. In maritime law the injured person can have a claim directly against the vessel, as well as the owner of the vessel. In short, the vessel may owe you for the injury that occurred on the boat or as a result of the boat rental. But, your attorney has to know how to proceed for you to recover and that is why it is important to hire maritime attorneys like www.888BOATLAW.com to fight for you and pursue every available avenue for you.
This is not a sideline, boat injury cases, this is what we do every day. You can have confidence in our 25 years of Florida boat accident cases fighting and recovering for our deserving clients.
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