Atlanta Boating Accident Lawyer

With access to nearby waterways like Lake Lanier, Lake Allatoona, and the Chattahoochee River, Atlanta has an active boating scene. Particularly during summertime and vacation periods, boating is the in-thing for visitors, tourists, and residents.

Enjoyable boating experiences, however, can quickly turn horrific when others on the waterway act negligently. This negligence can result in grievous outcomes like loss of lives, property damage, serious personal injury, and emotional trauma, to name a few.

After experiencing these losses, injury victims typically have at least one recourse: filing a personal injury claim against the at-fault parties, including negligent boat operators, negligent property owners, and others.

Statistics reveal that about $62.5 million worth of damages is paid annually in connection with boat accidents. If you or a loved one happen to be a victim of a boating accident, let an Atlanta boating accident attorney help you seek full compensation for all of your damages.

Ali Awad, the CEO Lawyer, promises to fight for you while making it easy to get the help you need to recover fully.

Schedule a free case, confidential case review with a boating accident lawyer in Atlanta to learn how you can seek the maximum compensation for all of the damages you have suffered.

How Can an Atlanta Boating Accident Attorney Help You?

Getting boating accident compensation is not just about identifying someone who was the cause of your personal injury. A highly experienced Atlanta injury attorney like the CEO Lawyer can help guide you through the entire journey towards recovering the damages you have experienced.

The CEO Lawyer Atlanta attorney team has a track record of successfully helping injury victims like you. With over $1 million dollars worth of damages recovered for clients, you can be sure your journey to seek compensation will be guided by professionals with a history of success.

Services provided by the CEO Lawyer Personal Injury Law Firm can include:

• A thorough investigation of your accident and its circumstances
• Identification of all potential sources of compensation
• Assistance and representation while filing a claim for your damages
• An accurate valuation of all your damages based on your medical records and likely prognosis
• Negotiation on your behalf with insurance representatives
• Referrals to reliable treating physicians and injury recovery experts who won’t charge you up-front
• Guidance through the entire claims process, keeping you informed and in control of major case decisions

The CEO Lawyer team has helped thousands of clients recover, earning us a reputation for excellent care and compassionate representation.

We understand that you may be feeling hurt, afraid, confused, and stressed in the aftermath of your boating injury, and we want you to know that we are here to do everything we can to help you recover.

Documentation That Helps Prove Your Injury’s Cause and Costs

Your own word of mouth is not sufficient to prove fault and hold someone liable, even for the most obvious injuries and accidents. There has to be proof that would stand up in a court of law, even if the case is resolved through insurance negotiations.

Most personal injury cases are pursued through the legal doctrine of negligence. Negligence, in a nutshell, states four main things:

• The person being accused of fault had a duty of care to act in a safe manner so as to minimize the risk of harm to others
• The person breached their duty of care by acting in a dangerous manner or failing to take the expected precautions
• The breach in duty of care was the direct cause of an accident that led to your injury
• Your injury resulted in damages, including medical treatment costs and other losses

To prove all four components of negligence, thereby maximizing your chances of successful damage recovery, it helps to provide your Atlanta boating accident attorney with the following types of documentation.

Third-party Evidence of the Incident

While your own testimony and story will be considered in claim negotiations and in court, outside evidence is considered valuable, especially when the claimant’s story contradicts the at-fault party’s.

Physical evidence, such as boat wreckage and statements from witnesses, can confirm the details of the claimant’s story while helping piece together the causes of the accident, including the role of any possible negligence.

Medical Reports

Make sure to save any and all receipts and other documentation from your medical treatment, including discharge papers, lab reports, physician’s instructions, imaging (x-rays), and any other paperwork provided.

Your damages include any reasonable and necessary treatments, which can include over-the-counter medications and medical devices, like slings, that you have purchased.

Your medical documentation also serves as proof connecting your injuries to the accident in question, so seek prompt medical attention any time you have been hurt in order to have a record of your medical condition as close as possible to the date of the accident.

Pictures of the Boating Accident

If you are able to use a device like your cell phone, take pictures of the accident and your injuries as soon as possible after the collision has occurred (and once everyone is out of harm’s way).

Pictures of the boat’s wreckage, the boat or object you collided with, the waterway location you were at, and your injuries immediately following the accident piece together a picture confirming the details of the accident and how it led to your injury.

Your Own Version of How the Accident Occurred

Once you are safe and settled following the accident, it is important to capture as much as you can remember about the incident. Preferably, you will do this on or close to the date that the incident occurred.

Write down or record a statement breaking down the sequence of events. Details like the time of day, weather, how many people were on the boat, and your own recreational plans are pertinent to reconstructing how the accident occurred.

Further, statements like “we saw the incoming vessel before we had time to react” confirm aspects of negligence that are important to establish when fighting for an injury claim.

Records of Your Personal Pain and Suffering

When seeking damages, you can include the non-monetary suffering you have endured, including the pain you have experienced from your injuries and the suffering you have gone through as a result of being unable to enjoy life as normal.

Insurers (and juries) are apt to provide a limited amount of funds within compensation for the claimant’s personal pain and suffering, but in some instances, a larger amount would be more appropriate and proportional to the challenges the claimant was forced to go through.

Proving how much pain you were in and how much you suffered can be hard, but documenting your experiences as you go through them can help. Keep a journal or daily record of the pain you experience throughout the day, especially in the morning and immediately before bed.

Make note of the activities you were forced to partake in (such as lying on the couch to avoid straining your back) and the activities you weren’t able to participate in, such as kids’ baseball games.

Combined with your medical documentation, your own logs paint a picture of what it was like to recover from your injuries and the loss of enjoyment of life you dealt with while healing.

Common Causes of Boating Accidents

Some accidents are avoidable, but many are caused by acts of negligence or a general lack of care on the part of one or more parties.

This negligence can be enacted by the operator of the vessel the victim was on, making the operator liable, or the operator of another vessel that collided with the victim’s. In many cases, multiple parties will hold liability because of the negligence they have demonstrated.

Listed below are some of the most common causes of boating accidents and injuries in waters in Georgia and throughout the U.S.

Reckless Jet Ski Diving

During high-volume recreation periods like spring and summer break, people rent or purchase jet skis that they do not know how to operate safely.

Their inexperience and ignorance of safety precautions can lead them to perform dangerous maneuvers, such as speeding or cutting dangerously across the path of an incoming vessel, causing possible injuries to themselves and others.

Intoxication

Driving boats properly demands focus and concentration. It makes sense then that operating a boat while under the influence of alcohol, just like driving an automobile, is illegal.

Sadly, however, a high proportion of boating accidents leading to serious or fatal injuries involve excessive alcohol use.

Collision With Another Vessel

Collisions with other vessels can occur for a variety of reasons, including improper lookout, speeding, ignoring navigational markers, unsafe maneuvers, or misjudgment in the trajectory of nearby watercraft.

Nearly all vessel-to-vessel collisions are preventable, making it likely that the injury victim can consider one or more boat operators at fault.

Collision With a Fixed Object

Fixed objects can include manmade structures, such as buoy markers, or naturally occurring debris, such as underwater boulders or submerged logs.

It is the responsibility of the boat’s operator to make sound judgments as to the safety of entering certain waterways based on their experience and their own five senses. Further, they are expected to obey all marked navigational aids.

While some impacts cannot be avoided, others could have been prevented through better lookout, slower speeds, and more precaution on the part of the boat’s operator.

In some cases, dangerous debris may be the fault of a property owner or a negligent manager of the waterway, potentially including state agencies as well as large landowners like Georgia Power.

Your attorney will help you examine all potential sources of liability in order to identify which party or parties are most appropriate for seeking compensation from.

Types of Damages Typically Sought After Boating Accidents

Every personal injury claim is different, and so your attorney will assist you with calculating the damages you have suffered and seeking adequate compensation from all liable parties. Most boating accident injury claims will consider the following types of damages:

• Medical bills for past treatments, including emergency transport, surgeries, diagnostics, specialist treatments, hospital stays, medications, and more.
• Predicted treatment costs according to the treating physician and medical experts, including rehabilitation, follow-up surgery, and long-term medication regimens.
• Lost wages resulting from work missed while the victim recovers, as well as any long-term or permanent reductions in earnings.
• Property damage endured in the accident, including owned vessels that were damaged, as well as personal effects like cell phones and clothing.
• Pain and suffering endured as a result of the injury and inability to participate in normal activities.
• Punitive examples are awarded in cases that proceed to trial where the jury finds that the at-fault party acted recklessly, intentionally, or with gross misconduct.

Defective Products Claims After Boating Accidents

Some boating accidents are caused (in part or in full) by a malfunction involving a defective vessel.

There may have also been a defect in a piece of aftermarket equipment like lighting or navigation systems, causing the accident in question to occur — or worsening the accident’s outcome compared to if the defect was not present.

Manufacturers are responsible for defects that lead to injuries, whether those defects are the result of a design flaw, an issue with manufacturing, or a failure to properly warn and advise the operator so as to avoid injury.

Some boating accident injuries will involve multiple claims filed at the same time, potentially involving a negligent operator, a defective product manufacturer, and other parties whose negligence contributed to the victim becoming injured.

Find Out How Much Your Case Could Be Worth by Speaking With an Atlanta Boating Accident Law Firm

Boating accidents have the potential to inflict life-changing injuries, sometimes killing the victim or leaving them with an inability to live their life the same way as before. A simple mistake can lead to hundreds of thousands of dollars — sometimes millions — in damages.

If you or your family have suffered from the acts of another and are looking for ways to recover, look to the proven and experienced boating accident attorneys in Atlanta at the CEO Lawyer Personal Injury Law Firm.

We do everything possible to ease your journey to recovery while maximizing your chances of obtaining compensation for all of the damages you have suffered.

Your first appointment is always free, and there is no obligation to continue working with our firm after your initial case review.

Further, we provide our clients with the option to work with us on contingency, meaning you pay nothing upfront, and you only pay for our services if we are able to recover a settlement or award for you.

Find out why millions of followers online look to Ali Awad for his no-nonsense advice and compassionate legal counsel. Use the contact form on this page, or dial