If you have suffered an injury in an incident involving a boat, you have legal rights. All boat operators have a duty to prevent any unreasonable harm to any other person that they may encounter while on the water. This extends to other boaters, kayakers, their own passengers, and even swimmers.
When a boater acts in a reckless or negligent way and causes an accident, they could be held liable in court. Our legal team at A.W. Smith Law Firm, P.C., we will work hard to help you seek compensation for your injuries and damages. Our team of personal injury attorneys has helped our clients recover of $75 million in settlements.
A Rolla boat accident lawyer can work to investigate the incident, accurately measure your damages, and demand full payment for your losses in settlement talks and in courts.
Boaters have a similar duty to protect other people as automobile drivers do on the road. This includes an obligation to follow all rules of the water concerning speed, right of way, proper navigation, and even lighting. A failure to follow any of these rules could result in a serious accident. Rolla courts could assume that a defendant is at fault for an accident using the concept of negligence per se. This legal doctrine means that a court assumes the defendant’s fault if the defendant violated the law.
The State of Missouri also uses a concept known as comparative negligence to evaluate liability in accident cases. Juries in boat accident cases will evaluate the actions of all parties involved to assign fault. Accordingly, the jury will reduce a plaintiff’s award if they believe the plaintiff contributed to the incident. A Rolla boat accident lawyer could demonstrate the defendant’s negligence as well as to refute the idea that a plaintiff contributed to the incident.
Regardless of the theory of the case, plaintiffs have a limited time to pursue a claim. Under Missouri Revised Statutes §516.120, injured claimants have five years of the date of the accident to file a personal injury lawsuit. A knowledgeable Rolla boat accident lawyer could help to pursue a case effectively and on time.
The purpose of a personal injury claim is to make the plaintiff whole again. In other words, the compensation award should place the plaintiff in the same position that they would have been if the accident never occurred. As a result, it is necessary to evaluate the plaintiff’s full losses in order to demand proper compensation.
The central portion of any personal injury claim is the plaintiff’s physical harm. A case cannot even progress without medical documentation of an injury. Typical examples of these injuries in boat accident cases include:
A seasoned Rolla boat accident lawyer could help to pursue a case for all medical damages. However, this is often insufficient to make a plaintiff whole again. Many plaintiffs also suffer economic damages in the form of property loss or lost wages. Others suffer severe mental trauma in the form of loss of quality of life and loss of enjoyment of life. An experienced attorney at The A.W. Smith Law Firm could help to evaluate the true value of a case and to pursue negligent defendants for full payments.
All boaters have an obligation to protect others from unnecessary harm including following the rules of the water. When a party fails to live up to this obligation, they could be considered negligent.
A Rolla boat accident lawyer may be able to help you to obtain this compensation. Whether a case involves demanding payments from an insurance company or requires a plaintiff to sue the boat’s driver directly, our legal team at A.W. Smith Law Firm could help you every step of the way. They can act quickly to determine the cause of the incident, demonstrate the defendant’s liability, and demand full payments for your losses. Call today to schedule a free consultation.
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