October 9, 2013
For many, a trip to Alaska is a once-in-a-lifetime experience dreamed of for years. Alaska is a beautiful and enticing place to visit. Unfortunately, for those injured in an accident their sense of adventure and enjoy can promptly turn to confusion, fear and uncertainty as to what the future holds. Tourists, are particularly vulnerable when they are dealing with accident injuries. Often they have been life flighted out of the wilderness or airlifted off of a cruise ship at sea to the nearest hospital hundreds of miles from the accident site. To say they are a long way from home in unfamiliar surroundings is an understatement. They lack the support system of family and friends or their own healthcare providers with whom they are familiar. At times like this, Alaska seems even farther away from home.
Once the injured tourist has navigated the unfamiliar Alaska health care system and gotten their accident injury “stabilized”, in almost all cases they return home for a long or short recuperation. It is at this point, they start wondering “Who is going to pay the bills?” and “How am I going to be compensated for my lost earnings and permanent injury”. A trip to the local injury attorney is usually nonproductive because, other than knowing the case needs to be prosecuted in an Alaska court under Alaska law, they know little else which is helpful to the injured tourist. Sometime the local injury attorney will try to help locate an Alaska injury attorney, but just as often they simply throw up their hands and send the injured tourist or family member out the door.
Over the last 30+ years I have handled numerous accident injury cases, including wrongful death cases, which have occurred in Alaska and which involve tourists who come to the Last Frontier on a once-in-a-lifetime trip. In almost all instances, their experiences before getting to me, have mirrored the explanation I have set out above about what happens to an out-of-state tourist who suffers an accident injury in Alaska.
The “tourist injury cases” I have handled for my clients cover a broad spectrum. Those cases include several claims against the Alaska Railroad by injured passengers, several tour bus accident injuries, multiple airplane crash cases in which tourists have been injured or killed, one motorhome collision involving out-of-state tourists, numerous automobile accidents involving tourists as drivers or passengers, a motorcycle accident case where the husband and wife team were nearing their final destination, and two fishing charter boat accident injuries. In each of these cases, Alaska law was applicable. And in each of these cases knowledge of Alaska’s geography, healthcare facilities, court systems and juries was critical in my successfully recovering money damages for my clients.
If you or a loved one have been injured as a tourist in Alaska, whether this was a once-in-a-lifetime trip or you have been up here many times, and you need legal representation in order to receive fair compensation for your injuries, give me a call. I can help.