Working With an Expert
What Does a Maritime Expert Witness Do? A Master Mariner Explains
A former tanker master and harbor pilot explains what a maritime expert reviews, what opinions belong in a report, and when to bring one into a case.
Blog
Practical articles for attorneys and claims professionals, written by a former tanker master and harbor pilot.
Jones Act
Jones Act Negligence: What Reasonable Care Means Aboard a Working Vessel
Jones Act negligence explained by a former chief mate and master: what reasonable care means aboard a working vessel and where the proof comes from.
Working With an Expert
Bluewater vs. Brownwater Vessels: Why It Matters in an Injury Case
Ocean shipping and inland towing are different trades with different rules. How to match a maritime expert's background to the water your case happened on.
Towing
Barge and Towboat Accidents: How They Happen and Who Is Responsible
How barge and towboat accidents happen, from deckhand injuries to bridge strikes, and the records that show who is responsible. From a former ship captain.
Navigation
How Boat and Ship Collisions Are Reconstructed
How boat and ship collisions are rebuilt from AIS, radar, VDR, and logs, then measured against the rules of the road. From a former tanker master and pilot.
Safety Management
The ISM Code in Maritime Litigation: What the Safety Management System Must Show
What the ISM Code requires of a vessel company, which SMS records matter in a case, and how to tell whether a safety system worked or only existed on paper.
Passenger Vessels
Duty of Care on Cruise Ships, Ferries, and Tour Boats
The duty of care cruise ships, ferries, and tour boats owe passengers under maritime law, and what an expert examines after an incident.
Pilotage
Who Is in Charge When a Pilot Is Aboard? Master vs. Pilot Responsibility
A former tanker master and harbor pilot explains how responsibility is split on the bridge under pilotage, and what goes wrong when the exchange breaks down.
Boating
Who Is at Fault in a Jet Ski Accident? The Rules Still Apply
Who is at fault in a jet ski accident? The navigation rules, operator duties, and rental practices that decide it, from a former ship captain.
Working With an Expert
Consulting vs. Testifying Maritime Expert: When to Use Each
When to retain a maritime expert as a confidential consultant, when to designate him to testify, and what Rule 26 means for each role.
Working With an Expert
Evidence to Preserve After a Boat or Ship Accident
The evidence to preserve after a boat or ship accident, which records overwrite themselves, and why the first week matters most. From a former ship captain.
Working With an Expert
When to Retain a Maritime Expert
Why the best time to bring a maritime expert into a case is usually before you think you need one, and what an expert can do in the first ninety days.
Boating
What to Do After a Boating Accident: A Captain's Step-by-Step Guide
The first hour, the first day, and the first week after a boating accident: safety, reporting, evidence, and medical care, from a former ship captain.
Boating
Who Is at Fault in a Boat Accident? How Fault Is Really Determined
How fault is decided in a boat collision: the navigation rules, lookout and speed, impairment, owner responsibility, and shared fault.
Boating
Boating Accident Statistics 2024: What the Coast Guard Numbers Mean
The Coast Guard's 2024 boating accident numbers, what causes most crashes, and what the data does and does not tell you, from a former ship captain.
Boating
Do You Have to Report a Boating Accident in California?
When California requires a boating accident report, the deadlines, where to file, and why that report usually cannot be used in a lawsuit. Plus what evidence does count.
Boating
Lake Havasu Boating Accidents: Patterns, Hot Spots, and Investigations
Why boating accidents happen on Lake Havasu and the Colorado River, the conditions behind them, and how they are investigated, from a former ship captain.
Passenger Vessels
How Do People Fall Off Cruise Ships? Man Overboard Explained by a Ship Captain
How cruise passengers go overboard despite high railings, how ships detect and respond to a man overboard, and what evidence investigators review.
Boating
Boat Accident Evidence Checklist: Share This With Your Attorney
A printable checklist of the evidence to keep after a boat, jet ski, or cruise accident, from a former ship captain. Share it with your attorney.
Jones Act
CG-2692 Explained: When a Marine Injury Must Be Reported
When federal rules require a marine casualty report for a crew injury, what Form CG-2692 covers, and what a missing report can mean in a maritime case.
Navigation
The Pennsylvania, Oregon, and Louisiana Rules in Maritime Cases
The Pennsylvania, Oregon, and Louisiana rules explained: three admiralty presumptions that shape collision and allision cases, and how they are rebutted.
Navigation
Rule 5 Lookout: Distraction, Phones, and Why Boats Collide
What Rule 5 requires of a lookout, when the helmsman can also keep lookout, and how phone use on the bridge is proven after a collision.
Working With an Expert
Rule 702 After 2023: What It Means for Maritime Experts
How the 2023 amendment to Federal Rule of Evidence 702 affects experience-based maritime experts, and how to build opinions that survive a Daubert challenge.
Working With an Expert
The Limitation of Liability Act Explained
The Limitation of Liability Act explained: how an owner's limitation action works and why privity or knowledge is really an operations question.
Towing
Towboat Deckhand Injuries: Lines, Wires, and Lock Walls
Where towboat deckhands get hurt, which practices prevent it, and the records a maritime expert reviews in a towing injury case.
Pilotage
What Does a Harbor Pilot Do? A Former LA Harbor Pilot Explains
A former Los Angeles Harbor pilot explains the job: boarding, local knowledge, tugs, berthing, and how state and federal pilotage differ.
Jones Act
Am I a Seaman Under the Jones Act? The Test in Plain English
The seaman status test in plain terms, the 30 percent guideline, and the vessel facts that decide whether a maritime worker can bring a Jones Act claim.
Jones Act
Maintenance and Cure: What an Employer Owes an Injured Seaman
The oldest benefit in maritime law in plain terms: what maintenance and cure cover, when they end, and why a willful failure to pay can bring punitive damages.
Boating
Jet Ski and Boat Rental Accidents: Who Is Responsible?
Who is responsible in a jet ski or boat rental accident? What a rental business must do before handing over the keys, and the records that show it.
Navigation
Who Has the Right of Way on the Water? Meeting, Crossing, and Overtaking
Who has the right of way on the water? The three basic encounters, who gives way in each, and what the stand-on boat must still do.
Passenger Vessels
Ferry Accidents: How They Happen and How They Are Investigated
How ferry accidents happen and how they are investigated: wheelhouse staffing, docking, passenger handling, and the records that matter.
Passenger Vessels
Dive Boat Safety After the Conception Fire: What to Look For
Dive boat safety after the Conception fire: diver accountability, boat handling near divers, overnight fire safety, and emergency planning.
Pilotage
Pilot Ladder Accidents: The Rules, the Failures, and Who Is Responsible
Pilot ladder accidents: how pilots board ships, the international ladder rules, and the evidence that decides a pilot injury or death case.
Boating
Pontoon Boat and Houseboat Accidents
Why pontoon boats and houseboats are involved in so many slow-speed injuries, from swimmers near the stern to passenger falls, and what an expert examines.
Boating
Jet Ski Accidents: How They Happen and How Riders Get Hurt
The most common ways jet ski and personal watercraft accidents happen, from collisions to passenger ejections, and what investigators look at afterward.
Boating
Signed a Jet Ski Rental Waiver? What Still Matters After an Accident
A signed waiver does not end the questions after a jet ski or boat rental accident. What the rental company had to do, and what to ask your attorney.
Boating
Boat Propeller Injuries: How They Happen and How They Are Prevented
Why propeller strikes happen near swim platforms, ladders, and swimmers, what careful operators do to prevent them, and what investigators look at afterward.
Towing
Subchapter M Explained: Towing Vessel Safety Rules and Injury Cases
What Subchapter M requires of towing vessels, which records it creates, and why those records matter in towboat and barge injury and casualty cases.
Jones Act
Failure to Train on Vessels: How Crew Training Gaps Cause Injuries
How a maritime expert evaluates crew training in a seaman injury case, what good training records look like, and the red flags that show up most often.
Pilotage
Pilot Error and the Master's Duty to Step In
When a ship's master should question or relieve a harbor pilot, the warning signs a bridge team should catch, and how intervention is judged after an accident.
Working With an Expert
Thirty Below on a Steel Deck
What years on Exxon tankers in the Alaska trade taught a master mariner about fatigue, weather, and why shipboard safety rules read the way they do.
Working With an Expert
What a Maritime Expert Report Should Contain
The Rule 26 requirements for an expert report, how a strong maritime report is organized, and the weaknesses opposing counsel looks for first.
Towing
Lock and Dam Procedures, and Where They Go Wrong
How a tow transits a navigation lock, who controls what, where deckhands and vessels get hurt, and which records fix the timeline afterward.
Towing
Barge Breakaways During High Water
Why barges break loose in high water, the Louisiana Rule presumption against drifting vessels, and the mooring and fleeting records that decide these cases.
Navigation
Why Ships and Boats Run Aground: Causes and Responsibility
Why ships and boats run aground: under-keel clearance, squat, tide, passage planning, chart settings, and pilotage, from a former tanker master.
Navigation
Safe Speed (Rule 6) in Fog and at Night
Safe speed under Rule 6 in fog and at night: what Rule 19 adds, what radar does and does not change, and how safe speed is judged after a collision.
Safety Management
What Bridge Resource Management Really Requires
How bridge resource management works in practice, why bridge teams fail, and how BRM breakdowns show up in voyage data recorder audio after a casualty.
Passenger Vessels
Medical Emergencies at Sea: What Cruise Ships and Ferries Must Provide
Medical emergencies at sea on cruise ships and ferries: what operators must plan for, from crew training to the decision to return to the dock.
Safety Management
STCW Hours of Rest and Fatigue in Marine Accidents
STCW hours of rest explained: the minimums, how rest records get falsified, and how fatigue is proven or disproven after a marine accident.
Safety Management
Root Cause Analysis After a Shipboard Accident
The difference between the immediate cause and the root cause of a marine accident, how good investigations work, and why many stop too early.