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olina’s coast. His cases typically involve boating accidents such as collisions, various injuries on and around boats and the water, jet skis, and allisions, which occur when a boat hits a xed object such as a pier.
In 2016, the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Com- mission reported 367,225 boating vessels were registered in the state. ere were 147 serious boating accidents and 22 fatalities on the state’s waters that year.
“In personal injury law, maritime substantive law is comparative negligence whereas North Carolina state law is contributory negligence. e di erence is, in contrib- utory, if you are one percent at fault as the plainti you generally get zero recovery. Under maritime law, if you are one percent at fault as the plainti you get 99 percent re- covery,” explained Harris.
While the rules of discovery are the same on land as on the water, a maritime accident investigation is unique. “In my discovery and investigation, I’m asking questions about wind, weather, waves, moon and the tidal phase. I’ll prob- ably want to have an accident reconstructionist with a mari- time background. I’m dealing with marine surveyors and naval architects.”
When there is a water-related accident, the investigation may involve the NTSB, OSHA, and the U.S. Coast Guard among others. “It can make preserving evidence a real challenge,” said Harris.
ere are a great many di erences between land-based cases and water-based cases.
Maritime cases are seen at both the state and federal levels. “ is is where practitioners who don’t deal with maritime law every day can get jammed up because they may not realize that the tools that maritime law can o er can work to their advan- tage strategically and/or procedurally.”
Harris o en gets called in on disputes involving boat owners who were towed a er running aground and said they have a membership to an emergency response com- pany.
“For instance, someone comes and puts a line on their boat and pulls them off then sends the boat owner a bill for a portion of the vessel’s value. You might have a $100,000 sportfishing vessel and you suddenly get a claim against you for $20,000-30,000. It’s a claim un- der marine salvage law. We get into this dispute over whether it’s a salvage or a tow, and it might make a big difference in value,” said Harris.
THE LOVE BOAT
“One of the joys about having a coastal practice is that on the weekends we love to beach up and go shing,” said Harris. He owns a 22’ Robalo Caymen called the BLUE PHISH (an homage to his favorite band). Free time is spent on the boat with his 11-year-old son, Fint, and wife, Julie.
“I’m the most miserable person to go shing with because on the way out, we see a shoal or someone’s line gets tangled or a propeller gets fouled and I can tell you a horror story about any of that stu .”
HARRIS (RIGHT) WITH HIS WIFE, JULIE, AND THEIR SON, FINT.
PROCTOR IN ADMIRALTY
Harris has been designated as a Proctor in Admiralty by the Maritime Law Association of the United States, which is an organization of maritime lawyers. “Having earned proctor in admiralty status is a great honor and an important distinction toward demonstrating pro - ciency and competency in practicing maritime and ad- miralty law,” said Harris.
CRANFILL SUMNER & HARTZOG LLP
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