Boat Accident Investigation

Answer:

Boating accidents in New York State have very unique laws associated with them. Recently, a client of mine’s husband was killed in a boating accident on the Niagara River. We’re still in the process of this case. We sued this case against the owner and operator of the boat in New York State Supreme Court. The defense in this case has attempted to remove that case to Federal Court because the Admiralty laws under the federal government are more favorable to them. What we’re doing right now is we are seeking to remand that case back into the State Court. The reason is because the laws in the State Court provide us with common law negligence, as well as jury pools that we’re interested in.

In this case, the individual who was operating the boat is claiming that they weren’t responsible for the accident. We were fortunate enough to be able to hire a private investigator early on and were able to secure a video from a hotel that was close by. That video is the impetus for us being able to show we believe that the driver of the boat’s negligence was the approximate cause of our client’s injuries.

Before we do that, we are now navigating through the Federal Court laws in order to get the case remanded back to the State Court. The bottom line in these cases is that if there is a boating accident that you’re involved in, you need someone who understands not only the state law, but the Federal Admiralty Laws that are associated with these types of claims.