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Personal Injury
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When maritime related personal injury occurs, we can provide you the benefit of our experience in defending or asserting claims resulting from improper design, construction, operation, or training.
The seafarer, the vessel passenger, and the shipyard worker are affected by a variety of codes, statutes, and standards. Our familiarity with these regulations, as well as industry custom and practice, enables us to develop analyses that are central to the issues.
Sample Cases:
Unusual Tank Entry Design on a Chemical Tanker
Fisher Maritime analyzed the circumstances surrounding a seaman's fall to the bottom of a cargo tank from a tank entry ladder. Fisher Maritime compared the actual access to various worldwide standards for ladder and platform designs. Although there were no regulatory standards applicable to that ship's ladder due to the ship being in a gap between flag-state requirements and classification requirements, the actual design violated every identified published standard. Defendant ship owner and its insurance company apparently agreed, as the seaman received significant compensation from the ship owner well in advance of the trial date. An Outboard Motor
An example focuses on a pull-start outboard motor. A safety feature is that it cannot be started in gear -- only in neutral. The operator's manual cautions the user to not try to start the motor in gear -- in other words, do not verify that the safety feature is operable. A severe personal injury resulted when an operator inadvertently started the motor in gear -- which occurred because the safety device had previously failed. But according to the operator's manual and the design of the motor, there was no way a user could have determined that the safety feature had failed without having the outboard motor stripped down by a qualified technician. See more cases. |
