The last thing anybody wants to experience is getting injured in a New Jersey boating accident. However, there are times when careless, negligent or distracted actions of boat owners or operators cause harm. Whether you are on a private boat or a boat operated by a recreation company, you should be able to secure compensation if you are injured.
At Console & Associates, PC, we specialize in personal injury law, and our experienced New Jersey personal injury lawyers are ready to investigate your case in order to secure the fair compensation you need to recover.
Residents in and around New Jersey and the Atlantic seaboard regularly take part in boating activities. However, these incidents can lead to serious injuries or even death for passengers. According to the US Coast Guard, there were 4,291 total boating vehicle accidents during the latest reporting year across the country. Out of these reported incidents, there were 2,628 injuries and 658 fatalities. During that same reporting year, there were 116 boating accidents reported in New Jersey.
In many of these cases, the boating accident is caused by the careless or negligent operation of the owner or boating operator. The USCG states that most boating accidents are preventable and their list of the top causes of boating accidents includes:
If it can be shown that the boat operator or owner was negligent and that their negligence caused an injury, then the victim should be able to file a lawsuit to recover compensation for their losses.
Boat accident cases can become incredibly complicated. Some boat accident victims do not have the resources or legal experience necessary to properly pursue full compensation for their case. At Console & Associates, PC, our New Jersey boat accident attorneys will handle every aspect of your case. This includes:
There’s this common misconception out there that’s keeping people who really need a slip and fall attorney from getting one. It’s this notion that attorneys cost too much.
This is a lie – but it’s one that more than half of people surveyed believe.
Boat accident representation usually doesn’t cost anything upfront at all, because it’s typically provided on a no-win, no-fee basis.
We have a No Win, No Fee policy. Also called a contingency fee basis, this fee arrangement means that your lawyer gets a percentage of the amount he or she recovers for you.
When our law firm takes on a client, we also make a commitment to advance all of the costs of pursuing the claim. So, remember those experts whose opinions are so important to proving the liability and damages in your claim? They can easily cost thousands of dollars – but that expense is our problem, not yours, unless and until we win money for you.
Remember, the cost of a lawyer should only be part of the equation. The value an attorney can bring to your claim matters, too. An attorney will cost a percentage of your settlement but, remember, you should see a considerably higher payout with a lawyer than you would get on your own. On average, represented clients get 3.5 times more than claimants without legal representation.
It all starts with a free consultation. From the start, you’re getting the benefit of an attorney’s knowledge without having to pay anything out of pocket.
We get it – hiring a lawyer is no one’s first choice. You’d rather this injury go away on its own, with no need for a legal ordeal. For that matter, you’d rather the accident never happened in the first place.
But now that it has, hiring a nearby boating accident attorney really is necessary – even if it’s a scary step.
That, we think, is what makes hiring a lawyer so intimidating. It’s not us (at least, we hope not – especially once you meet our attorneys yourself).
It’s really the worry about the legal process: what it entails, what it asks of you, what you risk when you undertake it.
A lot of what makes this whole process so scary is the fact that, unless you have a law school education yourself, you probably don’t know much about it. Your attorney will help you make sense of it all and handle the legwork for you, but first, you need to resolve to actually hire one.
You know what’s a hundred times scarier than hiring a New Jersey boat accident lawyer?
It takes bravery to reach out to an attorney, just as it does to ask for help in any other context. But, whatever your reason for fighting back – your family, your passion, your indefatigable spirit – it’s a good enough reason to make hiring a lawyer a priority.
If you’ve ever heard of settlement amounts for boating accidents or other types of personal injury claims, the numbers may seem somewhat random. In reality, though, they are based on a number of factors, with the damages you suffered in the accident being among the most important. Boating damages fit into two general categories: economic and non-economic.
Economic damages include all of the harms and losses you have suffered that have a direct financial figure attached to them, such as:
Then there are non-economic damages, the type of damages that don’t have this obvious direct cost. Although they are hard to quantify, these non-economic damages are very real. In fact, some of them are among the things that make life after an accident so difficult to bear.
The success of your claim depends on the evidence. As you might guess, documenting the significance of non-economic damages is often more complicated than documenting economic damages. If you plan to seek compensation for non-economic damages, having a lawyer on your side is even more important.
Claiming and substantiating your non-economic losses is part of your attorney’s job. Because we’ve been in the business of handling personal injury lawsuits in New Jersey for more than 25 years, we have a strong background to draw from in determining how much money your non-economic damages entitle you to receive. You can be confident that we’re not just throwing out a number to see what happens – we’re basing our settlement demands on other legal precedents set by cases like yours all across New Jersey and on our in-depth knowledge of the legal market in your jurisdiction.
A New Jersey boat accident attorney near you can help you make sure the settlement covers all future needs as well as current needs – including some expenses you may not yet know to anticipate.
There are numerous factors that go into determining the case value of a New Jersey boat accident. The severity of your injury matters. So does the extent of your damages.
These two factors are related, but they aren’t the same. For example, a broken bone may be generally more severe than a soft tissue injury. However, if it doesn’t require surgery or physical therapy and doesn’t result in missed time from work, that case may be worth less than a soft tissue injury that results in months of physical therapy, missed work, and a microdiscectomy surgery.
Another factor to consider is the strength of your argument against the property owner. If you can show that the defendant is fully at fault for the accident, you will get more money than you would if you were determined to be partly at fault. That’s because, although New Jersey’s comparative negligence law allows you to sue even when you’re partly at fault, it also allows your compensation to be reduced by the amount by which you are found at fault.
Every boating accident case is unique. The facts of your case and the damages you sustained are specific to you. So, to get a truly informed opinion on how much your case is worth, you need to consult an attorney directly (which you can do at no cost, since we offer free consultations and no-win, no-fee legal representation).
If you or a loved one have been injured in a boating accident that was caused by the careless or negligent actions of another person, seek assistance from a law firm with vast experience handling these types of cases. At Console & Associates, PC, we are ready to get to work on your case.
You can contact us for a free consultation of your case, or by calling our New Jersey personal injury lawyers at one of the location phone numbers on the contact page.
This law firm is very professional, courteous, and they get the job done. I strongly recommend this law firm.
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