Page 23: of Marine News Magazine (October 2012)

compound fracture of his leg.? It?s important to note that there was no limit of liability statute for pilots in the state in which the incident occurred. Among the many alleged acts and/or omissions of negligence included were:  Failing to keep a proper lookout; Failure to operate the ship in question in a reasonable and prudent manner as to prevent injury to persons and/ or property;  Operating the Avalon Sun in an unreasonable manner;  Operating the Avalon Sun at an unreasonable speed; and  Creating unreasonable pressure  elds, suctions, Bernoulli effects, waves, wakes and/or surge at the place of the occurrence. The case against the pilot?s license was conducted before the State Pilot Commission which determined very quickly that he was not negligent in performing his pilot duties throughout the incident in question. Yet it took over two years, dozens of court appearances, countless depositions and attorney/client conferences for that same pilot to  nally be released from the civil case brought by the injured boater. And while relatively little money was expended in his successful license defense, the  nal cost of his civil case defense exceeded $60,000. And, that was a victory! At the end of the day, all licensed mariners should consider protecting themselves and their families by purchasing some level of civil legal defense coverage. Whether they be frivolous, legitimate or somewhere in between, most civil lawsuit proceedings are lengthy and time- consuming and, as such, become very expensive to defend ? particularly on your own dime. www.marinelink.com MN 23MNOct2012 Layout 18-31.indd 23MNOct2012 Layout 18-31.indd 2310/2/2012 9:35:36 AM10/2/2012 9:35:36 AM