Mount Dora is close to many of Florida’s most beautiful lakes and waterways, including Lake Dora, Lake Eustis, Lake Yale, Lake Harris, and Lake Griffin. While a fun recreational activity, boating carries the risk of dangerous accidents that can cause injury to you or a loved one. When another person is at-fault for your injury, you may have a right to compensation through a civil injury lawsuit.
Our Mount Dora boat accident lawyers have experience in filing these cases and understand the evidence needed to make a successful claim. Learn more about the issues that could affect your legal claims after suffering injury in a watercraft collision and how our personal injury attorneys could help in the pursuit of justice.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) often reports hundreds of boat accident every year, with dozens of fatalities. The most common accident types were collisions with other boats and collisions with fixed objects. However, other types of accidents include falls overboard, flooding, grounding, capsizing, and fires. Many boat accidents occur while they were cruising, as opposed to being docked, drifting, or at anchor.
The causes of boat accidents are not too different from the causes of other motor vehicle accidents. For example, the following issues and behaviors could lead to a Mount Dora boat accident:
The injury from a boat accident can vary in severity. However, the most common types of injuries include lacerations, contusions, broken bones, and head or back injuries. If fault for the boat accident belongs to another party, they could be liable for your damages such as medical expenses, lost wages, and your pain and suffering from the incident.
Boat operators and others on Mount Dora’s many lakes have a general duty to exercise reasonable care toward others in their boating activities. A failure to meet this duty through speeding, driving under the influence, and other reckless behavior could result in a finding of negligence that creates liability for injuries from resulting boat accidents. Boat operators also have an affirmative duty, when possible, to render practical and necessary assistance to others when they are involved in an accident under Section 327.30.
Another party that could have fault is a business with vicarious liability for the negligent operation of a commercial charter. Boat manufacturers could also have product liability for defective equipment that causes an accident.
Florida has a new statute of limitations for filing an injury lawsuit, which generally applies to negligence claims from Mount Dora Boat accidents. The filing deadline is now two years from the date of the accident and applies to claims arising after March 24, 2023. Missing this filing deadline can prevent you from recovering any compensation from liable parties after an accident.
The length of a boat accident lawsuit could depend on its complexity and the willingness of the parties to settle. The process often involves preliminary investigations, an exchange of court filings, and possible settlement negotiations with liable parties or their insurers.
Our Mount Dora boat accident lawyers help the victims of water-based injuries in their pursuit of justice by managing every stage of their lawsuit. We know how to collect important records from the FWC or available accident data from a boat’s black box that could help prove your case. Schedule a free consultation with our attorneys as soon as possible after an accident to discuss the details and determine the applicable filing deadline you must meet.
Talk to us and learn more about your next steps.
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