Just one more thing they can sue you for if you ever were involved in an accident with someone else, or deny coverage on an insurance claim.
Correct. This is when they begin to take issue with the rating plate. I had it work against me in court one time. A para-sailing boat throwing a 3 foot wave swamped my boat and took out my Tigershark engine. And this was not the first time he had swamped someone in the inlet with his reckless ocean cowboy chit. He had already been tried and convicted of the same thing twice in the previous year. Once again, the so-called "Captain" (I use the term laughingly) was charged with negligent operation. But when we went to court, his bottom-dweller asked me how many HP my boat had, and I answered honestly, a 100HP engine. Unlike his wormy POS client, I take being under oath seriously, I'm not going to lie.
Then he asked me what the rating plate said on my boat, and I answered honestly, 50HP.
Well, that was that. In the jury's eyes, it was MY fault that I got swamped because my boat was overpowered. Never mind that a Tigershark engine fully assembled weighs about 150 lbs, and a 50HP outboard 2 stroke weighs 205 lbs. And never mind that his scrunt of a client has a bad habit of operating at plow speed, seeing how large of a wake he can throw, breaking channel buoys loose from their anchoring, and swamping every boat he passes, and never mind the 2 previous convictions, can't bring that up. And never mind that I had 6 other people, 3 of them in law enforcement, come to court prepared to testify about the SOB swamping their boats....all of my witnesses were thrown out, as were all my photos of engine damage, etc.
Oh, and never mind that juries are selected from registered voters, we already know how stupid the average voter is, based on the past several election cycles. Heck, one of the jurors kept falling asleep during the trial. More than likely, it was a put-up job from the start, as in, a lawyer buying off the judge and the solicitor.
I say that, because, despite the colossal stupidity of Judge Dan Furr and the assistant solicitor Jackie Smith, as well as the hand-picked stooges on the jury.....my insurance company doesn't think my boat is overpowered with a 160 HP 4 stroke, I have it insured. Maybe if I'd had that documentation when I went to court, the outcome may have been different.