Changing Landscape of Derelict Vessel Prevention: Legal and Practical Impacts

Overview
Speaker(s)

This session focuses on preventative measures of all types designed to address and eradicate problem vessels and problems with vessels before those vessels reach a true derelict state. The program initially focuses on Florida's increasing suite of derelict vessel prevention options with an open discussion among participants to share existing and possible strategies/nuances from their own states. The presentation also addresses some legal issues implicated by specific preventative measures, including due process and searches and seizures in the deteriorating vessel context, as well as how lawmakers and implementers can ensure individual legal rights are not violated.

Brandy Elliott

Senior Attorney; Boating and Waterways Advisor

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission

Brandy E. Elliott is an attorney for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s (Commission) Division of Law Enforcement. One of her primary responsibilities is advising the Division’s Boating and Waterways Section on boating law issues in the state. She is, in fact, the state’s only attorney advising on legal issues related to boating. Brandy is a passionate advocate for safe and lawful boating in Florida.

Among her other responsibilities, Brandy served as the legal process expert for crafting the state’s standardized procedures to ensure due process in the removal and destruction of derelict vessels, and with Commission policy experts, trained law enforcement officers and local government authorities on these processes throughout Florida.

Brandy is a legal advisor to the state’s statutorily created Boating Advisory Council. She has worked with boating associations, lobbyists, and public officials crafting boating legislation and working for its successful passage by the Florida legislature for many years.

Brandy has been practicing law for 12 years and has been with the commission for 13. She is also a trial and appellate attorney handling all forms of boating litigation for the Commission. She has both a juris doctorate and a Masters in Applied American Politics and Policy from Florida State University.