“Since less than 5% of the practicing lawyers are ever selected for this award, and since I think I am the only lawyer regularly practicing in the recreational diving field to ever achieve one, it is an exceptional honor.”, says Lesser. The Plaintiff’s case, which was thoroughly discussed at DIVELAW’s 2009 DEMA Show Seminar, involved a woman on her first intro ocean dive who was lost by her divemaster, then surfaced to scream for help and finally sank, dying in the hospital a week later. Although the details of the case were public, the attorneys for the training agency involved insisted on confidentiality as to the amount of the settlement.

The defense case was won on behalf of one of Hawaii’s most professional operators, and involved a woman who suffered a severe broken ankle while apparently jumping with the waves as the boat was underway. “Their settlement demand never dropped below middle six figures, so we were obligated to go through a full blown trial before the court decided what we had been saying all along, which was that our vessel operator simply was not negligent.”

“We also have a number of high profile cases in the pipeline at the moment, so this should be an interesting year” Lesser added.