Articles

Confusingly, there are two federal laws which sailors know generically as the “Jones Act.” One is the statutory creation of a remedy for sailors injured through the negligence of the ship. There are actually three separate remedies for injured sailors, only one of...

A few times a year I get a call from an out of state lawyer representing a yacht yard, crewing company or other supplier. The lawyer tells me a certain yacht is cruising Maine waters, and can I arrest it? If the facts are right, I can have the ship arrested, and the...

Soon after I started my law practice a transplanted Texan hired me for a trap molestation case. He had a recreational lobster license and fished five traps outside Portland harbor. The locals resented his traps, and time and again he checked his traps and decided...

Federal law says only U.S.- built boats can fish commercially in U.S. waters. Lots of Canadian-built boats lobster, dredge and scallop in the waters off Maine and the other states. What’s going on here? Let’s review a few basics. A commercial fishing boat operating in...

When I was a kid, my favorite fishing spot was a narrow tidal gut, reliable for bluefish and through which the waters of Cape Pogue Bay flowed and still flow. A house sits on a low bluff hard by the gut, looking north over Vineyard Sound and the Bay, heaven on earth....

Last month I described some of the advantages of incorporation. There are other ways to create a legal “person” through which to do business. These include limited liability companies (LLCs) and the various forms of partnership. Limited liability companies first...

If you own a small business - and that includes commercial fishing operations – you’ve probably considered whether to incorporate. This is a dry subject, but important. I’ll try to keep it painless. When a business is incorporated, a new legal person is created. This...

Yes, crew agreements. Federal law requires that the owner of a fishing vessel sailing from a U.S. port and of 20 gross tons or over must have a written employment agreement with each seaman. The agreement must state the effective dates of the agreement, and “the terms...

Nobody’s idea of a good time begins with a blue flashing light in the rearview mirror, or on an approaching Marine Patrol boat. And how you react to that stop can make a big difference in whether the encounter ends as just a few minutes’ inconvenience or as the start...