South Carolina Maritime Law Accident Attorney
Myrtle Beach SC Casino Boat Tourist Injury Law Firm
With a 60-mile stretch of beach along South Carolina's Grand Strand, the South Carolina coast can be an attractive but dangerous playground for locals and tourists alike. Accidents can and do occur on personal watercraft, harbor cruises, and the other boating opportunities available in Little River and along the Intercoastal Waterway. If you need advice about your legal options in the aftermath of an injury on any vessel from a wakeboard to a passenger cruise ship, contact the Monckton Law Firm in Little Beach.
Because the United States Constitution grants "original jurisdiction" to the federal courts in admiralty and maritime cases, a person injured in South Carolina's navigable waters due to the negligence of a vessel's owner or operator will usually have the right to seek damages either in federal court under maritime law or in state court under South Carolina law.
The attorneys at the Monckton Law Firm are familiar with the applicability of maritime law to personal injury and wrongful death claims, and can advise you whether your case has a better chance of success under maritime law in the federal courts or in the state circuit courts of Horry or Georgetown County. The legal analysis of many different factors goes into the determination of where your case might be better filed, and our lawyers have the experience and detailed understanding of the law to offer sound advice.
Federal maritime law might apply to South Carolina boating accidents and tourist injury claims in the following settings:
- Casino boats
- Dinner or honeymoon cruises
- Charter fishing trips
- Commercial shipping or barge accidents
- Motoryacht collisions
- Parasailing accidents
- Scuba diving accidents
- Injuries caused by personal watercraft off the beaches of the Grand Strand
While maritime law will most obviously apply in cases involving collisions between boats or single-vessel accidents caused by a negligent or incompetent skipper, it can also apply to cases of assault or even slip-and-fall accidents on cruise vessels or casino boats.
Whether it's to your advantage to file your lawsuit in federal court under maritime law will depend on the specific facts of your case. In certain situations, an accident victim has significant advantages under maritime law, but a careful review of the circumstances is necessary to make that determination.
For additional information about your legal options following an accident on the ocean or in the Intercoastal Waterway, contact a knowledgeable lawyer at the Monckton Law Firm in Myrtle Beach.
