Delray Beach Maritime Attorney

A maritime attorney handles legal disputes arising on navigable waters or involving vessels, marine businesses, and admiralty law. You need one when you have been injured in a boat accident, when your boat has a manufacturer defect the dealer refuses to fix, when a marina or boatyard owes you money or disputes your bill, or when a vessel arrest or maritime lien is involved. Maritime law is a completely separate legal system from standard Florida civil law, with its own federal jurisdiction and procedural rules. A general litigator may not know how to arrest a vessel, enforce a maritime lien, or navigate the Southern District of Florida’s Supplemental Admiralty Rules, and attempting these procedures incorrectly can cost you the case.

If your injury was caused by someone else’s negligence, a reckless or impaired boat operator, a vessel with a known defect, an unsafe marina condition, or a manufacturer’s design flaw, you likely have a viable personal injury claim. Florida law allows recovery for medical expenses, lost wages, pain and suffering, and other damages. Recreational boat accident cases are not Jones Act cases; the Jones Act applies only to commercial maritime workers (seamen) injured on the job, not to recreational boaters. Act quickly: evidence disappears, witnesses’ memories fade, and serious boating accidents must be reported to the FWC within 10 days. Contact an attorney before that window closes.

The Jones Act (46 U.S.C. 30104) is a federal law that allows commercial maritime workers, seamen who work aboard vessels as their employment, to sue their employers for on-the-job injuries. Think of it as a workers’ compensation alternative for people who earn their living on boats: tugboat crew, commercial fishermen, offshore oil platform workers. If you were injured as a passenger on a recreational boat, as a boat owner, or in a marina accident as a visitor, the Jones Act does not apply to your situation. Your case is a standard negligence or product liability claim governed by Florida tort law and, in many cases, federal admiralty jurisdiction.

A maritime lien is a claim against a vessel itself, not just the owner, that attaches automatically when certain services are provided to the vessel, including repairs, fuel, dockage, storage, and supplies. No filing or recording is required; the lien exists the moment services are rendered. To enforce a maritime lien, the lienholder files an in rem action in federal court and may seek a vessel arrest. Unlike a state mechanic’s lien, a maritime lien follows the vessel regardless of ownership changes, even if the boat is sold before you file suit, the new owner takes the vessel subject to your existing lien. This makes maritime liens one of the most powerful collection tools available to marinas and boatyards in Florida.

If you provided necessaries to the vessel, storage, dockage, repairs, fuel, or supplies, you likely have a federal maritime lien that required no filing to attach and follows the vessel through any ownership change. You can enforce that lien in the Southern District of Florida, including arresting the vessel if the owner refuses to pay. The most critical factor: maritime lien rights can be extinguished if the vessel is sold to a good-faith buyer before you act. If the boat owner is threatening to move or sell the vessel, contact us immediately. A vessel arrest can freeze the situation and protect your rights before the vessel changes hands.

No. Florida’s Motor Vehicle Warranty Enforcement Act (Florida Statute Chapter 681) covers cars, trucks, motorcycles, and certain RVs, but it explicitly excludes watercraft. This is one of the most common misconceptions among Florida boat owners. However, you are not without options, the federal protections available to boat owners are often stronger. The Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act governs written warranties on boats and allows you to recover attorney fees from the manufacturer if you prevail. Federal maritime product liability law holds manufacturers strictly liable for design defects, manufacturing defects, and failures to warn. Florida’s UCC provides additional implied warranty protections. Read our full breakdown of what actually protects Florida boat owners.

You have at least three potential legal frameworks. (1) The Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act governs written warranties on boats and requires the manufacturer to honor them after a reasonable repair opportunity. If you prevail, the manufacturer must pay your attorney fees, meaning many warranty cases cost you nothing out of pocket. (2) Federal maritime product liability holds manufacturers strictly liable for design defects, manufacturing defects, and failures to warn, without any requirement to prove negligence. (3) Florida’s UCC implied warranty of merchantability requires that a boat be fit for its ordinary purpose as a seaworthy vessel. Document the defect immediately with dated photos and video, retain all repair orders and correspondence, and do not accept any settlement without a maritime attorney reviewing it first.

Yes. You have claims against the boatyard under maritime negligence and breach of contract when a repair shop’s substandard work causes damage to your vessel or fails to correct the problem you paid to have fixed. Document the defective work thoroughly, photographs before and after any follow-up inspection, all invoices, written correspondence with the yard, and any assessments from a certified marine technician. One important wrinkle: if you are disputing the bill for defective work and the yard has asserted a maritime lien against your vessel, you need an attorney immediately. A boatyard can seek to arrest your vessel in federal court to enforce that lien even when the underlying work was deficient. We defend vessel owners in those situations and negotiate release of the vessel while the workmanship dispute proceeds.

A vessel arrest is a federal in rem legal proceeding that seizes a boat as security for a maritime claim. The lienholder files a complaint in the Southern District of Florida and the court issues an arrest warrant executed by the U.S. Marshal. The owner cannot move, sell, or operate the boat until the dispute is resolved or substitute security, typically a bond, is posted to release it. Vessel arrest is an extremely powerful remedy because it forces the issue immediately: most vessel owners and their insurers move to resolve the underlying dispute rather than allow the boat to sit in custody accruing mounting daily storage and custodial fees. This is a specialized procedure that most attorneys have never used, and filing it incorrectly can result in the arrest being vacated and potential liability for wrongful seizure.

The deadline depends on the claim type. Florida product liability claims for defective boats carry a four-year limitation under Florida Statute 95.11(3)(d). Personal injury claims from boat accidents in Florida were shortened to two years by HB 837 in 2023. Federal maritime tort claims carry a three-year limitation under 46 U.S.C. 30106. Maritime lien claims for unpaid services are generally limited to one year under federal maritime law, but the practical deadline is much shorter, because if the vessel is sold to a good-faith buyer before you act, your lien is extinguished. Many boat purchase contracts also contain arbitration clauses with notice deadlines as short as 30 to 90 days from the incident. The safest approach is to consult a maritime attorney as soon as you identify a potential claim, before any deadlines become a problem.