Biloxi / Gulfport Maritime Lawyer

BP Oil Spill Settlement Announced

Gerry McGill — Fri, 11 May 2012 10:47:20 GMT

The Plaintiffs' Steering Committee spearheading the litigation concerning the 2010 BP Gulf oil spill has announced that a settlement has been reached with BP that will fully compensate hundreds of thousands of victims of the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

The settlement is to be fully funded by BP with no cap on the amount BP will pay. BP is obligated to fully satisfy all eligible claims under the terms of the Court supervised settlement, irrespective of the funds previously set aside.

We are currently representing businesses who sustained losses in 2010 that are located in the counties that actually touch or abut the Gulf of Mexico from Louisianna, Mississippi, Alabama and the entire Gulf Coast of Florida from Pensacola to Key West. We also represent commercial fishermen who fish in the Gulf or adjoining waters for oysters, shrimp, finfish and crabs.

If you owned a business south of I-10 and had decreased revenue in 2010 please contact us for a free evaluation of your potential case. We charge no fees or costs unless you collect.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Gerry McGill

Coast Guard Helicopter Crashes in Mobile Bay, AL. Three Dead, One Missing

Gerry McGill — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 12:26:27 GMT

A Coast Guard MH-65C Dolphin helicopter on a training mission crashed Tuesday night in Mobile Bay in Alabama. The helicopter carried a crew of four. The crash occurred about 8:30 p.m. Rescue crews who arrived on scene shortly after the crash recovered a crewmember from the helicopter who was later declared deceased. He was identified as Chief Petty Officer Fernando Jorge who was the rescue swimmer aboard. The other crewmembers were the pilot, Lt. Commander Dale Taylor, co-pilot Lt. junior grade Thomas Cameron, and the engineer, Petty Officer 3rd Class Andrew Knight who were declared missing.

The Coast Guard immediately launched an intensive search in the hope of finding survivors. Coast Guard units involved in the search were the 87-foot Coast Guard Cutter Stingray, homeported in Mobile, two MH-65C Dolphin helicopters and crews from Coast Guard Air Station New Orleans, one MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter and crew from Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater, Florida, two 26-foot Trailerable Aids to Navigation Boats and crews from Coast Guard sector Mobile, the Coast Guard Gulf Strike Team, the Coast Guard Maritime Safety and Security Team San Diego dive team, Alabama Marine Resources, and the Mobile County Sheriff's Department.

The search continued for 36 hours with the units conducting about 30 search patterns that covered 1,198 nautical miles within a search area of more than 200 nautical square miles in Mobile bay.. Thursday night U.S. Coast Guard officials reported that they had recovered the bodies of two of the three missing crew members, Lt. Commander Dale Taylor and Lieutenant junior grade Thomas Cameron. They were found about 100 yards from where the fuselage of the helicopter was found.

The search was hampered by surface fog and the fact that the waters of Mobile bay are very muddy in the spring due to river run offs which limited visibility underwater to 5 feet in most cases and as little as 1 foot in othes..

The tail section and the fuselage have been recovered as well as the flight data recorder, similar to the "black box" on airplanes and will be stored and analyzed as part of the investigation into the cause of the crash.

The Coast Guard has suspended the active search and rescue operations for the remaining crewmember and crews are now conducting salvage and recovery operations today. "The decision to suspend the active search was terribly difficult," said Captain Donald Rose the commander of Coast Guard Sector Mobile.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Gerry McGill

Do Jones Act Seamen Work In Your State? Does a River Run Through It?

Gerry McGill — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 12:05:00 GMT

The Jones Act is a federal law enacted in 1920 which, in part, protects seamen who are injured on vessels working on the navigable waters of the United States. The Act allows an injured seaman to bring a claim against his employer for the negligence of his or her emplorer or co-employee.

Normally such a claim would be barred by state workers' compensation laws which greatly limit an injured worker's rights and compensation. It's a sad fact that "workers" compensation laws protect the employer rather than the worker.

The Jones Act and the FELA, which protects railroad workers, are the only two Acts which allow employees to recover the same damages for injuries from their employer as could be recovered in a third party claim. Basically, they can recover for past and future medical expenses, past and future lost wages, and for past and future pain and suffering.

The navigable waters of the United States consist of the waters along the Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, and the Pacific coasts, the Great Lakes, the inland waterways and the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway.

The inland waterways are made up of over 25,000 miles of navigable rivers, most of which are located in the eastern half of the United States. The Mississippi River and connecting rivers allows vessels to transit from the Great Lakes to the Gulf Coast..

Inland and intracoastal waterways directly serve 38 states. Their primary use is to utilize tugs and barges to move large quantities of bulk commodtiies such as coal, petroleum products and grain and other food products from the inland sources to ports along the Gulf of Mexico such as Mobile, New Orleans and Houston for further shipment be sea to domestic and foreign destinations.

Towboats, which are actually pushboats, push barges lashed together, known as a "tow", down the rivers. 4 to 6 barge tows are common on the smaller, more winding rivers and 15 barge tows are common on the larger rivers. 40 barge tows are frequently seen on the Mississippi River. (For reference purposes a single 15 barge tow is the equivalent of 225 railroad cars or 870 tractor trailers.)

A towboat crew generally consists of at least 4 persons--a captain, a pilot or relief captain, an engineer and a deck hand. Larger tows may have an additional deck hand. All of these persons are Jones Act seamen. In addition, there are many ports along the rivers where transiting tows re-fuel and take on supplies. Frequently harbor tugs push fueling barges to the tows. Everyone working on these tugs and barges are also Jones Act seamen.

The Jones Act and the FELA were enacted because working on commercial vessels and the railroads were among the most dangerous professions. Safety has improved but injuries and deaths continue to occur. When that happens these workers and their families need and deserve everything we can do for them.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Gerry McGill

Electric Cigarette Explodes in Florida Man's Mouth

Gerry McGill — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 17:46:15 GMT

A Florida man was smoking on an electronic cigarette when a faulty battery caused it to explode in his mouth. He lost some of his front teeth and a chunk of his tongue and suffered severe burns on his face. Fortunately he survived the explosion and resultant fire and was recovering on Wednesday in a hospital burn center in Mobile, Alabama.

Joseph Parker, division chief for the North Bay Fire Department, said: "The best analogy is like it was trying to hold a bottle rocket in your mouth and it went off". Parker reported that: "The battery flew out of the tube and set the closet on fire". The victim was identified from his Facebook page as John Holloway. He was in his home office when the device exploded. A scorched battery case found on a piece of melted carpet appeared to be one for a cigar sized device.

Fire officials said Parker told them he was trying to stop smoking which is why he was using the device.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) posted a warning on its website in October that e-cigarettes were addictive, could contain dangerous chemicals like nicotine, and might encourage children to try other tobacco products. Nothing was said about exploding batteries.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Gerry McGill

Costa Concordia Passengers Need to Review Their Cruise Ticket Contract

Gerry McGill — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 13:12:04 GMT

Costa Concordia cruise ship passengers contemplating bringing a claim against the cruise line need to carefully review their Cruise Ticket Contract which can be found at costacruise.com. Much to their surprise they will find 7 pages of fine print containing severe limitations to their right to obtain compensation for their losses. First, Paragraph 3 limits the liability of the Carrier for the wrongful death or personal injury to the Passenger to approximately U.S. $70,000.00.

Next, Paragraph 2b) requires that the Carrier can only be sued in Genoa, Italy using Italian law. However Paragraph 3 provides that Costa Cruise Line or it's parent company, Carvival Cruise Lines, shall have the benefit of all restrictions, exemptions and limitations of liability available through the courts of the United States of America providing for limitation and exoneration from liability. In other words they get to use American law if the choose but the passengers do not.

Paragraph 1 provides that a Passenger making a claim must notify the Carrier within 185 days of the injury or death and any suit must be filed within one year of the injury or death or it will be forever barred.

Paragraph 7 provides that the Carrier shall not be liable to the Passenger for damages for emotional distress, mental anguish or psychological injury of any kind when such damages were neither the result of a physical injury to the Passenger, the the result of the Passenger having been at actual risk of a physical injury, nor intentionally inflicted by the Carrier. Look for Costa to take the position that those Passengers who, thankfully, were rescued despite the Carrier's inexcusable behavior were never "at actual risk of a physical injury".

There are other limitations in the tickets including claims for lost clothing, jewelry, personal items such as cameras, phones and computers and money.

Finally, some sources report that some attorneys are talking of a Class Action. Good Luck. Paragraph 9 specificall prohibits this. Curiously, this is the only paragraph in ALL CAPS.

It is time to reform the American based Cruise industry that carries at least 10 million passengers per year before we have a "Costa Cordia Disaster" here.

The worst part is that with one exception these provisions appear virtually verbatim in Carnival Cruise Lines U. S. Cruise tickets and they have been upheld by American Courts. For cruises that originate in the U.S. the Carrier cannot limit its liability in wrongful death or personal injury claims.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Gerry McGill

The Captain Abandons His Ship? !!

Gerry McGill — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 09:20:05 GMT

It is the oldest unwritten "law" of the sea-- The Captain goes down with his ship". But although Captain Smith did go down with the Titanic 100 years ago, it is not usually taken literally. What it really means is that the Captain is the last to leave a sinking vessel after the passengers' and crew memembers' safety has been assured, as much as possible.

Apparently the Captain of the cruise ship Costa Concordia, Francesco Schittino, did not agree. Not only did he exhibit extremely bad judgement and poor seamanship in running his mega ship aground with over 4000 people aboard, early reports are that he abandoned his vessel in a life boat around 12:30 a.m. Saturday when the last of his passengers who got off alive did so some 6 hours later.

Worse, it is now clear that his !st Officer was in the life boat with him and that he refused to return to his ship after he was ordered back by the shore based Italian Coast Guard which was in charge of the rescue effort. Italian Coast Guard Captain Gregorio De Falco shouted over the radio to him: "What are you doing? Are you abandoning the rescue? Get back on board now. That's an order! Don't make any more excuses!" In the recording Schettino apparently insisted that nearly everyone was off the ship when the Coast Guard said several hundred were still trapped aboard.

Captain Schittino was ordered to steer his life boat back to the ship and go back aboard but he refused saying the ship was listing and it was dark. Captain De Falco shouted back: "And so what? You want to go home Schettino? It is dark and you want to go home? Get on that prow of the boat using the pilot ladder and tell me what can be done, how many people there are and what their needs are. Now!" Schettino agreed to reboard the ship but the Coast Guard said he never returned.

The Italian police arrested him ashore. Prosecutors call his actions "Reckless, cowardly, and deadly".

As a graduate of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, and former Commanding Officer of two Coast Guard cutters I am appalled and outraged at the conduct of Schittino. I hesitate to refer to him as "Captain" anymore and I believe he has forfeited the privilege to be called by that title.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Gerry McGill

Go Navy Beat Army

Gerry McGill — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 15:19:40 GMT

As I write this Navy has just kicked off to Army for the 111th time. Most football fans won't care. Neither team will go to a bowl this year. They are ranked 119 and 120. But the game does matter to those involved, the players and the fans who root for them. Not a single player on either team will go to the NFL next year. But the players who graduate will go on to more important but significantly less lucrative careers. Navy quarterback Kriss Proctor will be a Naval Flight Officer. Fullback Alexander Teich will start training to be a Navy SEAL. Guard John Dowd has a 3.91 GPA on a six course academic load that includes reactor physics. He wil be assigned to submarines. Army linebacker Andrew Rodriguez has a 4.14 GPA in mechanical engineering and will be going into the infantry. Both sides want to win and wil leave everything they have got on the field. But when it's over they know it was just a game.

I close with a quote from General Douglas MacArthur which is engraved in stone over one of the entrances to an athletic building at West Point: "On the fields of friendly strife are sown the seeds that on other days and other fields will bear the fruits of victory."

As a post script I note that on this Heisman Trophy Saturday, Army has three Heisman winners and Navy has two.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Gerry McGill

National columnist Susan Estrich's unfortunate/uninformed op ed piece

Gerry McGill — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 11:42:58 GMT

On Monday the Pensacola News Journal ran a piece by the national columnist Susan Estrich titled “Sometimes lawsuits are just plain idiotic.” Unfortunately, she started her column with the following: “Sadly, the idiotic suits—against McDonalds because the coffee was too hot, or against the dry cleaner who supposedly ruined a lawyer’s suit (and offered to pay for it, before getting sued)—get more attention than the vast majority of cases filed because of legitimate disputes.”

While she may have a point about the apparent frivolousness of the dry cleaning lawsuit, it is unfortunate to see a columnist with such stature as Estrich point to the now infamous McDonalds lawsuit as an example of out of control litigation. Using the McDonalds lawsuit to make that argument is simply wrong and misinformed. Anyone wanting to know the full story behind that lawsuit—and how it is actually an excellent example of our civil justice system’s importance to the everyday American—the recent HBO documentary “Hot Coffee” is a good place to start.

Hot Coffee is a documentary that set out to explore our civil justice system, why it has been under attack for the last few decades and whether those attacks are warranted. The McDonalds hot coffee lawsuit is one of the most well-known lawsuits in our country’s history and for many people it has become nearly synonymous with a broken justice system. Yet this documentary forces the viewer to think whether that is really true, and in the process raises a series of questions that anyone interested in protecting and improving our civil justice system should consider.

Hot Coffee is a great film for generating healthy, factually-based public debate about civil justice in our country. It’s a shame that before writing her column, Estrich didn’t appear to have seen the film and instead contributed to the misinformation that already surrounds the McDonalds litigation. Thankfully, the documentary Hot Coffee is helping to set the record straight. With DVDs available on November 1, anyone with an interest in this important public issue has an opportunity to become informed.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Gerry McGill

Seven survive boat capsizing in Florida Keys

Gerry McGill — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 14:18:47 GMT

A boating incident off the Florida Keys that hit the news yesterday brings to light some basic boating safety practices that all water enthusiasts should practice. On Sunday, 7 individuals were rescued from the water almost 20 hours after their recreational boat capsized. One other person, an elderly woman, died before anyone found the boaters.

Apparently, the group of family and friends had set off on Saturday morning from Layton on a 22-foot boat belonging to one of the people in the group. Unfortunately, the forecast for that day was not favorable. While it might have been nice when the group left, there were heavy rains and powerful winds expected. According to a Coast Guard official, there were high winds and heavy chop on the day of the incident. In addition, that same official warned that in the Keys, it is important to constantly monitor the weather as it can shift quickly. In fact, on Saturday, a small craft advisory had been posted warning of wind speeds of 23-38 mph and seas 7 feet or higher.

After heading out from the Middle Keys, the group apparently dropped anchor not far from Long Key Bridge. A squall then hit, with winds up to 40 mph and swells up to 10 feet. This caused the boat to flip over at about noon on Saturday. After capsizing, the group of people got separated. Three women and a young child clung to a cooler and when they were found, all were wearing life jackets. The Coast Guard rescued the women and child. Meanwhile, a group of three men were found by a commercial fisherman eight miles away holding on to the capsized boat. None of them were wearing life jackets; nor was the elderly woman who is presumed to have drowned.

The survivors were all treated and released from a hospital and are considered to be very lucky for having survived the incident. But the experience—and the tragic death of one member of the group—is a strong reminder for boaters to always use personal flotation devices (life jackets) and always keep up with Coast Guard weather warnings.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Gerry McGill

Massive Vessel Moors in Pensacola, Florida

Gerry McGill — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 15:28:47 GMT

Over the weekend, residents of Pensacola have had an interesting view in the port: on Friday, the massive “Versabar 10,000” docked at the Port of Pensacola. Given rough waters in Louisiana and Alabama, Pensacola was chosen a docking location for the vessel, making it the first time that any apparatus of its kind made it to the Port of Pensacola.

The Versabar 10,000 is a massive double arch structure made of steel and anchored to two barges in a catamaran-style, permitting the enormous steel structure to be transported throughout the Gulf of Mexico. At 240 feet tall and weighing over 6,000 tons, it truly is a sight to behold.

So what exactly is it going floating into the Port of PEnsacola? In short, the mission for the Versabar 10,000 is to clean up hurricane-damaged oil rigs and platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. The vessel is capable of lifting 7,500 tons of scrap metal from as far down as 400 feet. This enables the rig to more quickly clean up the Gulf after a hurricane as compared to a typical piece-by-piece approach. Once lifted from the ocean floor, damaged oil platforms can be placed on barges and shipped off for salvaging.

Only in the Port of Pensacola for routine labor, the Versabar 10,000 is set to leave port on Tuesday.

About the editors: This blog entry is provided as a service of the personal injury law firm Levin Papantonio Thomas Mitchell Echsner & Proctor, P.A.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Gerry McGill