Boyd Law, P.A. is a full service admiralty and maritime law firm. Our firm has handled a wide variety of cases that involved disputes arising where admiralty and maritime laws are applicable. Examples of cases that the attorneys of Boyd Law, P.A. have handled over the years are as follows:
The majority of personal injury claims are filed in State Court and are heard by a Jury. The majority of all other maritime cases are filed in Federal District Court and are tried to a Judge only without a Jury. All personal injury cases are taken on a contingency fee basis. If no recovery is made, no fees or costs are charged to the client. On cases that are charged on an hourly fee basis, Boyd Law, P.A. typically charges $250 per hour. However, this firm tries to work out a fee arrangement with its clients that is most advantageous to its clients, so it is very important for the client to be satisfied with the fee agreement before work is begun.
We have handled numerous accidents over the years involving recreational boating. Recreational boating can provide hours of entertainment and fun for the family. However, not everyone on the water knows the Rules of the Road or operates their vessel in a safe manner. As a result of the negligent operation of a boat or personal water craft, serious injuries or deaths can occur. The maritime laws are different than the laws that apply to land based accidents. For example, the Statue Limitations Periods are typically shorter, the presumptions of negligence are different, the way to determine the percentage of negligence on the various parties is different, the types of damages you can be entitled to are different, and where you can file your cause of action can be different. If you are injured in a recreational boating accident, hire a lawyer that knows the maritime laws and that knows all the differences between a car wreck case and a boating accident case. If you have been injured in a recreational boating accident, call us for a free consultation to determine your legal rights.
Florida provides some of the best fishing and shrimping grounds in the world. As a result, there are many vessels and vessel owners that hire people to work in the fishing and shrimping industry. These jobs tend to be well-paying jobs, but also tend to be dangerous jobs. We have handled numerous injury cases over the years where fisherman or shrimpers have been injured as a result of the unseaworthiness of the vessel or the negligence of a fellow crew member or vessel owner. In these situations, the injured crew member can file suit against the vessel owners and operators. These injured seaman are treated as Jones Act Seaman. They are entitled to Maintenance and Cure benefits, even when there is no negligence on the vessel owner or vessel operator. The injury or illness must simply manifest itself during the course of the voyage. In addition, the injured seaman can be entitled to unearned wages. Unearned wages is the same amount payable to the injured fisherman that he would have received if he would have completed the voyage. Causes of action for Jones Act Seaman, for Maintenance and Cure, for Seaman’s wages, and for Unearned Wages, are foreign to most land based lawyers. It is important to pick a lawyer that knows the laws of the sea. If you are a crew member onboard a fishing vessel or shrimping vessel and have been injured, call us for a free consultation to determine what your legal rights are.
According to the Admiralty and Maritime Laws of the United States, the Judges are to go to whatever links are necessary to make sure that Seaman are properly protected by the Courts. The United States Congress has made this easy for the Courts and Judges to do. If a crew member is not paid his wages after being discharged from a vessel, he is entitled to two day’s pay for each day that the ship is late in paying his wages. In addition, the crew member can have the vessel arrested until the vessel owners either post a bond or pay the crew member’s wages. Typically crew members are also entitled to reimbursement of their attorneys’ fees for the vessel’s nonpayment of crew wages. For example, if a crew member is making $200 per day and is discharged from a vessel without the vessel operator paying the crew member his last $2,000 in wages, the crew member need only ask for his wages, then from that day forward the crew member is entitled to $400 per day until the wages are paid in full. Under this scenario, if the vessel is two weeks in making payment to the crew member, crew member would be entitled to his thousand dollars in wages plus $400 per day times 14 days which equals $5,600 in penalty wages, plus his $2,000 in base wages, plus attorneys’ fees. If that same seaman was not paid for a month, his penalty wages would total $12,000 ($400 per day x 30 days). Few lawyers in the state of Florida know how to handle a crew wage claim. Give us a call for free consultation if you are a crew member that has not been paid your full wages.
There seem to be fewer and fewer cargo claims as the ocean carriers have learned to be more careful and handling others cargo. However, if you find yourself with damage cargo as a result of an ocean carriers or inland carriers carriage of your cargo, you usually have one year to file your cause of action in court. You could have as little as 3 days to put the carrier on notice that you have cargo damage claim. Most ocean carriers claims and many inland carriage claims are controlled by the Carriage Of Goods by Sea Act, which is also known as COGSA. If your cargo has been damaged by an ocean carrier or inland carrier be a trucking a rail, you need to contact your insurance company immediately. If you find yourself with the need for a lawyer who knows how to handle cargo damage claims, call us today for a free consultation.
In the State of Florida, there are many cruise line companies that provide cruises to various parts of the world. If a passenger is injured onboard a cruise vessel and the injury was due to the negligence of the cruise line and/or its employees, the passenger has a negligence cause of action against the cruise line. The majority of cruise line tickets require that the lawsuit be filed within one year of the accident. In addition, the majority of the cruise lines require that suit be filed wherever their main office is located in Florida, this often requires that the case be filed in Miami, Florida. If a passenger can prove that the cruise line was negligent or its employees were negligent that resulted in injury to the passenger, the passenger can be entitled to past and future medical benefits, past and future pain and suffering, past and future lost wages, mental anguish, and loss of the capacity for enjoyment of life damages.
If you have a vessel or barge that has been damaged during a tug and tow operation, you may need the services of a lawyer that knows the Admiralty and Maritime Laws of the United States to help determine the amount of damages your entitled to, as well as how to get paid for these damages. Typically the vessel providing the tug is responsible to get the vessel or barge it is towing to it to its destination safely. If that is not done and damages occur, there is a presumption that the towing vessel is at fault and is responsible for the damages it causes to the vessel or barge being towed. In certain situations, the vessel providing the towing can be arrested for the damages caused during the tug and tow operation. This usually is not necessary, but is something that is available to the vessel owner that has sustained damages. If you have a situation where a tug boat has caused damages to your property, put them on notice immediately, put your own insurance company on notice immediately, and talk to a lawyer that knows the Admiralty and Maritime Laws that apply in this situation. The maritime laws that apply to a tug and tow situation are very different than the laws that would apply to a land-based accident. If you have a question about this area of the law, call us today for a free consultation.
In the State of Florida, there are many cruise line companies that provide cruises to various parts of the world. If a passenger is injured onboard a cruise vessel and the injury was due to the negligence of the cruise line and/or its employees, the passenger has a negligence cause of action against the cruise line. The majority of cruise line tickets require that the lawsuit be filed within one year of the accident. In addition, the majority of the cruise lines require that suit be filed wherever their main office is located in Florida, this often requires that the case be filed in Miami, Florida. If a passenger can prove that the cruise line was negligent or its employees were negligent that resulted in injury to the passenger, the passenger can be entitled to past and future medical benefits, past and future pain and suffering, past and future lost wages, mental anguish, and loss of the capacity for enjoyment of life damages.
When a vessel is or may be at fault in an accident, without the privity or knowledge of the owner, the owner may be able to limit his liability in the accident to the value of the vessel at the end of the voyage, plus the amount of money owed for the freight charges. While the law that allows the possibility of limitation was enacted to encourage investment in commercial shipping, it has been repeatedly held to apply as well to non-commercial vessels of all sizes, even including personal watercraft (jet skis). Because the value of the vessel at the end of the voyage can be zero, limitation actions have the potential to completely deny recovery to injured parties and are carefully scrutinized by the Courts. The limitation statute provides an unusually short period of time from the receipt of the notice of a claim to the filing of a limitation action - a jurisdictional time limit that is often overlooked by non-maritime counsel. The limitation law only allows a vessel owner 6 months to file his limitation action in federal court from the date that the vessel owner received written notice that the injured party is holding the owner liable. Therefore, in any case involving a vessel accident, it is vital that the vessel ownership interests seek the advice of qualified maritime attorneys immediately.
Tim Boyd has handled a wide variety of cases where vessels have been damaged due to someone else's negligence. The most obvious cause of a vessel being damaged is a collision of two vessels or an allision where one vessel is tied up and another vessel runs into it. There are many different ways for a vessel to be damaged. For example, if a manufacturer of one of the component parts of the vessel malfunctions, the rest of the vessel can be damaged or destroyed by fire. Another type of damage to vessels occurs when a marina removes a vessel from the water, and causes damages to the vessel, or when a marina does not provide adequate security and the vessel is vandalized or stolen. In each one of these cases, the marina or the person at fault would be required to pay for the damages to the vessel owner.
There are other types of Marine Property damages that can be caused that will be subject to Maritime law. We have handled cases for damages caused to docks, marinas, barges, fender systems of bridges, etc. Typically, these cases are easy to prove against a vessel that has caused the damages. Under Maritime law, when a moving object, usually a vessel, strikes another object that is not moving, usually a dock or bridge, the moving vessel is presumed to be at fault.