Associated With:
Super Lawyers
American Association for Justice
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National lawyers
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Richard J. Davies

Shareholder / Owner
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Phone: 206.624.8844
Direct: 206.957.3344
Fax: 866.231.2499

1700 7th Ave #2100
Seattle, Washington 98101

Richard J. Davies is a founding member of the Seattle law firm of Kraft Davies Olsson PLLC. Practicing in federal and state courts since 1995, Rick has gained a national reputation for representing injured fishermen, fish processors, tug workers, ferry workers, blue-water seamen, Holland America Line passengers, dock workers, maritime repair workers, marine construction workers, commercial divers, victims of recreational boating accidents, and other maritime workers or passengers injured or killed on the water or at sea.

In a career that has spanned more than 25-years, Rick has obtained multiple results in excess of a million dollars in a variety of complex maritime personal injury and wrongful death cases. He has litigated cases against some of the largest maritime employers in the world, including Crowley Maritime Corporation, Foss Maritime Company, American Seafoods Company, Icicle Seafoods Company, The Fishing Company of Alaska, the state of Washington, and many other maritime employers and fishing companies operating in the waters of Puget Sound, the Pacific Ocean, Gulf of Mexico, Alaska, the Bering Sea, the Columbia River, and elsewhere.

Rick is proud that his work has provided financial resources to injured maritime workers and their families, given them the ability to transition into new careers after career-ending injuries at sea, provided dignity after a loss, and allowed workers to provide for their families when they cannot work due to unsafe working conditions on a vessel or the negligence of another. By holding maritime companies financially accountable for the injuries they cause and the lives they change, Rick hopes to make the maritime industry safer for workers and passengers.

Rick has obtained an AV Preeminent Rating from Martindale-Hubbell® Peer Review Ratings™, the highest rating awarded to distinguished attorneys in one of the most well-respected peer review rating services for attorneys in the United States. Rick has also been honored multiple times as a "Super Lawyer" by the Super Lawyers rating service, a division of Thomson Reuters, an honor reserved for less than 5% of lawyers nationwide.

Rick’s reported cases include, Mai v. American Seafoods Co., 160 Wn. App. 528, 249 P.3d 1030 (2011) (holding that a maritime employer may not condition payment of maintenance and cure on attending a company medical examination and upholding a trial verdict for compensatory damages and attorneys’ fees for wrongful denial of maintenance and cure to a fish processor who was struck with a box on the dock during offload); Regan v. BP West Coast Prods., LLC, 2011 US Dist Lexis 52845 (2011) (holding that evidence supported BP’s exercise of control over the job site where the company conducted regular safety inspections and enforced safety policy on the job site when a worker was injured falling through a roof of a building being demolished).

Education

J.D., Willamette University College of Law

B.A., University of Puget Sound

  • Majors: Economics
  • Major: Politics and Government

Jurisdictions Admitted to Practice State of Washington, 1995
U.S. District Court, Western District of Washington, 1998
Professional & Bar Association Memberships

The American Association for Justice

Washington State Association for Justice

Honors & Awards
  • AV Preeminent Rating from Martindale-Hubbell® Attorney Peer Review Ratings™
  • Recognized as "Super Lawyer" by Washington Super Lawyer, a division of Thomson Reuters
  • The National Trial Lawyers Top 100 Trial Lawyers
  • American Institute of Personal Injury Attorneys as 10 Best in Client Satisfaction
Representative Clients
  • Career-ending lower back injury to chief engineer on a tug boat 
  • Hand crush injury from a conveyor belt nip point 
  • Wrongful death claim for the family of a man that fell overboard in Dutch Harbor
  • Wrongful death claim for the family of a young deckhand on a crab boat that was lost at sea while returning to the vessel moored off a remote island
  • Severe electrical burn injury claim against a major public utility district for failure to properly ground its utility equipment and maintain its vegetation easement in rural Snohomish County
  • Injury to steward on a passenger cruise ship that resulted in a cervical disc replacement and loss of career
  • Career-ended respiratory injury to an iron worker after a refinery explosion
  • Traumatic brain injury with loss of career to deckhand on commercial crab fishing vessel
  • Slip-and-fall off the stern of a Seattle-based passenger ferry vessel with a career-ending shoulder injury to a marine engineer
  • Cargo collapse on a fishing vessel that resulted in displaced pelvic fractures and permanent urological injuries to a fish processor
  • Iron worker who sustained career-ending shoulder injury when he fell through a roof on a construction site due to improper fall protection
  • Chief Engineer sustaining traumatic brain injury after being struck with a parted tow wire on a tug due to poor wire maintenance
  • Deck hand sustained knee injuries with multiple surgeries after he jumped out of the path of a swinging crab pot on a factory trawler
  • Fish processor who was struck by cargo falling off a conveyor belt leading to a total knee replacement
  • Iron worker sustaining career-ending traumatic brain injury when he was struck with an unsecured roof truss during the construction of a retail store
  • Career-ending traumatic brain injury to a nurse in a collision with a commercial truck
  • Leg amputation to truck driver when he was struck with large pipes during an unsafe unloading operation
  • Wrongful death to concrete pump truck driver when the boom of his truck made contact with unmarked power lines on a construction site
  • Fish processor injured in an enclosed tank resulting in neck surgeries and fusion due to unsafe working conditions
  • Career-ending back injury to mate on a tug when he fell off the bow of the tug while handling lines
  • Career-ending back injury to cook on a tug when he slipped on oil on the deck
  • Career-ending injury to ferry able-bodied seamen when she was struck with a line and sustained serious chest injuries