The Jones Act Plaintiff
This is a long piece I wrote for a legal journal, not for the general audience, but it has a lot of solid information all the same. The Jones Act Plaintiff The remedies available to an injured seaman are three: so-called Jones Act negligence, the common law tort of...
Strange Facts, Great Case
Sometimes strange facts can add up to a great case. The facts can be legal. For example, early in my career I represented a truck driver client who had been badly injured when heavy cases fell on him when he opened the rear doors of the semi. The company that loaded...
Keeping the Port in Portland
Here's a little op ed piece I wrote, which the Portland Press Herald published in October 2022. The Port of Portland is a modern success story, and a powerful economic driver for Maine and the region. Citizen Initiative Question E, which would forbid cruise ship calls...
For Want of a Nail
Not long ago a case with an interesting and instructional fact pattern came my way. My client, “Ted”, was an older man who lived, with his wife and grandson, in a rented house. One day roofers showed up, tore off the existing metal drip edge, and in a day or two had a...
Recreational Boating Injuries
When I was a kid, the brother of a friend got tossed from his 13 foot Boston Whaler, the boat spun around, ran him over, and he ended up a truly spectacular series of scars up his back and a metal plate in his skull. Ouch. Injuries, damage and death are way up for...
Covid and the Mariner
COVID and the MarinerA seaman covered by the Jones Act contracts Covid from another crewmember and dies. Is the ship liable to the sailor’s estate, under either the Jones Act or the Unseaworthiness doctrine? Here’s a brief recap of the remedies available to an injured...
North Pacific Voyage
In April 2020, Matt Thomas invited me to join his staysail schooner Terra Nova for an attempt at the Northwest Passage, west to east. I would join in Poulsbo, Washington, across Puget Sound from Seattle. We would depart Poulsbo mid-May, sail to the Beaufort Sea via...
The Q Flag
When my wife and I entered Bahamian waters last year, I prepared to hoist the Q flag we'd bought at Hamilton Marine. Solid yellow, the Q flag shows that the ship is requesting "practique", permission to enter the foreign country and to submit to inspection by the...
Bread and Water
Until 2019, the commander of a ship in the United States Navy had the authority to order a lower ranking enlisted sailor (E-3 and below) confined to the brig on a diet of bread and water. The punishment had to follow a "captain's mast", known to the services as...
Property in Divorce
For divorce law, the 50 states are divided between "community property" states and "equitable distribution" states. In community property states, all property owned during marriage - not just property acquired during marriage - is split down the middle and divided...