Question: Last month my boat was struck by another boat while at anchor at Catalina Island. The damage was substantial, and the repair estimate prepared by a local boat yard came in at around $50,000. The other boat’s...
David Weil has been the proud author of the “Ask a Maritime Attorney” column in The Southern California Log Newspaper and Sea Magazine since 2006, with over 300 installments of the column. We have provided links in this section to those articles, covering a wide range of topics of interest to the California maritime and boating communities.
Question: I made an offer to purchase a boat through a yacht broker and the offer was accepted. The offer was contingent on a sea trial and survey, but I had to back out of the deal for personal reasons before the date of the...
Question: I was just informed by my tax accountant that the IRS is trying to exclude a piece of equipment I bought for business purposes and installed aboard our vessel, which is a U.S. flagged, Coast Guard documented...
Ask a Maritime Attorney: What is Admiralty law?
October 7, 2021
Question: I was briefly involved in a lawsuit last year in connection with a boat accident and I was a little confused by some of the terminology. First, what is the difference between admiralty law and maritime law? Also,...
Ask a Maritime Attorney: Does the old-time salvage law apply?
September 23, 2021
Question: I came across a rigid inflatable dinghy during a return trip from Catalina last weekend. The boat was drifting with no other boats in sight, so we tied the bowline off on our boat and towed it home. I assume the...