Personal Injury Lawyers Handling Cases in Washington, California, Florida and Elsewhere

Last week a man was sentenced for his role in a 2002 boating accident that resulted in the death of a teenager. The man had previously pled guilty to causing the death of the 18-year-old.

The man admitted to driving his boat into the fishing boat around midnight, in early May of 2002. At the time of the collision, there were three people aboard the fishing boat. In addition to the man who died, the accident, which occurred on Lake Buchanan in Texas, also injured the two other passengers.

A former deckhand of the M/V Caroline Morrison recently filed a $2 million lawsuit arising out of the personal injuries that he suffered after falling from the ship. The deckhand says that he fell from the ship in the summer of 2010 after the captain suddenly moved the ship.

Merchant seamen who are injured on the job may be entitled to significant compensation for their personal injuries. Many seamen are under the mistaken impression that they have to settle for what is in their union contract. An experienced maritime lawyer can help a seaman explore his or her options regarding additional benefits and compensation after a work-related injury. This is important because injured seamen should be able to get all of the compensation that they deserve.

News of the capsized Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia shocked the entire country recently. In our last post we discussed the details of the cruise ship wreck including the fact that nearly two dozen people were missing and that the wrongful death toll has climbed to 11 people.

Rescue workers had to suspend their search of the massive cruise ship recently after sensors detected movement of the ship. Rescuers were worried that the ship would dislodge from its perch on the underwater rocks by the island of Giglio and sink to the sea bed. Currently the ship is leaning on its side and many survivors are recounting stories of the chaotic evacuation procedures aboard the ship.

Rescue workers recovered five bodies from the wreckage of the Costa Concordia cruise ship Tuesday, according to Italian officials, bringing to at least 11 the number of people known to have died in the disaster.

The five bodies were found after Italian Navy divers blasted holes in the ship's hull to provide rescue divers with better access to the ship's interior, but it was unclear if those efforts led to the discoveries.

With nearly two dozen people still reported missing from the ship, which is lying on its side in the Tuscan waters off Giglio, Italy, a judge ordered its captain held pending a later decision on whether he should be released.

A seaman injury may prove costly to a boat rental and marine service company after an employee injured himself in New Orleans after a fall down a set of stairs.

The Louisiana Record newspaper reported in mid-December that a seaman is seeking $2.5 million in damages after suffering a personal injury. He slipped down the stairs of an offshore boat. The employee is claiming in his lawsuit that he slipped for two reasons: He was wearing wet boots and the stairs on the boat on which he was working did not feature non-skid strips on its steps.

This past fall we wrote a post on a fatal boating crash that occurred at Bonelli Regional Park in San Dimas, California. The accident, involving a power boat and a jet ski, claimed the lives of three women. The three women, who were all related, were riding the jet ski on Puddingstone Lake when it collided with the speedboat.

Since the October accident, detectives with the Los Angeles County sheriff's homicide department have been investigating the incident. Their investigation was recently concluded and the results were forwarded to the county Department of Parks and Recreation, Lake Lifeguard Division. Those results along with accident reconstruction findings and statements from witnesses culled by the Lake Lifeguard Division will comprise the finalized report. The report is expected to be complete sometime this month.

Being a merchant seaman is one of the most dangerous occupations in the country and many merchant seamen suffer serious personal injuries from job related accidents every year. Two serious seaman injuries have resulted in $5 million lawsuits in Louisiana recently.

One of the lawsuits involves a seaman who was injured after he slipped on a stairwell kick plate. The seaman says that the fall happened after he changed an oil and filter on a ship generator. The seaman stepped on the kick plate, slipped, and fell down the stairs. During this terrifying experience the man attempted to stop his fall down the stairwell by grabbing the hand rail. This resulted in injuries to his hand, wrist and shoulder.

The final report on an explosion on the Cunard owned Queen Mary 2 cruise ship last year was released earlier this week. According to the investigators, the U.K.'s Marine Accident Investigation Branch, the explosion was due to the deterioration of capacitors. The purpose of capacitors is to store energy. The location of the explosion was a main switchboard room.

As a result of the explosion, in addition to a blackout, all of the ship's propulsion motors stopped working. This caused the boat to drift. Fortunately the vessel did not run aground or into any other boats. Even more fortunate, no one was injured in the accident. At the time of the explosion there were 3,823 individuals on the ship.