Two Federal Lawsuits Filed on Behalf of All Sea-Doo Switch Buyers

Hybrid Pontoon-Jet Boat Described as a ‘Floating Death Trap’

Peter Swanson Jul 28

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Two separate Florida legal teams recently filed class-action lawsuits against BRP, the manufacturer of the Sea-Doo Switch, the jet powered pontoon boat with a propensity for flipping over forward.

“What BRP did not disclose to consumers—at all— is that the Switch boats feature defective designs that render them completely unsafe, unfit for normal use, and essentially floating death traps,” wrote Attorney Stuart Davidson, on behalf of a team of Florida lawyers who filed suit on July 17.

In seeking compensation for all Switch buyers, the lawsuit also alleged that the Canadian company’s marketing targeted people least able to pilot watercraft safely to begin with:

BRP’s acts and practices were unfair because they were immoral, unethical, oppressive, unscrupulous, and substantially injurious to consumers. BRP knew that the Switch boats were being purchased and used by a particularly vulnerable group of people, including first-time boat owners and families; knew that consumers would naturally assume the Switch boats were safe for normal use; and knew that the Switch boats were not, in fact, safe or fit for use because of the defects.

The suit was filed in U.S. District Court in Gainesville, Florida, representing Ariana Maria Renee Adkins of Archer as the named plaintiff. If the court approves the suit as a class-action, all Switch owners will be added.

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The Adkins case comes on the heels of another class-action lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Miami on June 25. This team of Florida lawyers includes the firm of Goldberg & Golden, which also represents the family of a little girl from North Florida in a separate case that seeks compensation for the permanent brain damage she suffered when their Switch flipped on the St. Johns River.

Representative plaintiffs in the initial suit are: Lori Long of Palm Beach, James Abreu of Lee County, Scott Bauer of Lee County and Craig Corlew, who spends part of the year in the Florida Keys.

Both suits make the same argument that a design flaw that allowed water to get inside Switch hulls tended to shift forward on deceleration, plunging the boat’s bows into the water and causing it to flip. The second suit—the one filed at Gainesville—also alleges that the same water intrusion created a host of other problems, including corrosion, engine damage, electrical failures, propulsion loss, fault codes and near-sinking events.

Both suits also allege that three BRP corrective actions—sealent repair in February 2025, a gasket repair in October 2025 and software throttle control measure in May 2026—all failed to fix problems caused by poor hull design.

Latest Switch Fix: Take Control from Operator at Critical Moment Peter Swanson   ·   Jun 27 Read full story

Besides the badly injured Florida girl, four Switch passengers have died after a forward flip. In October, the U.S. Coast Guard declared that these vessels presented a “capsizing hazard.”

“These capsizings have occurred when the vessel was operated with trim by the bow and the bow ‘digging into’ the water. Weather conditions and poor seamanship do not appear to be significant contributing factors,” Coast Guard investigators wrote.

The compensation theory for both suits is the monetary harm to Switch buyers, who paid top dollar for a boat, which has lost resale value as the world has learned of its hithertoo undisclosed safety issues.

Here’s an example of harsh words that the Gainesville lawsuit lawyers had for BRP:

BRP marketed the very design feature that makes the Switch boats dangerous—the tri-hull configuration—as a source of safety and stability. On its website and in materials disseminated to consumers, BRP represented that the Switch’s “Tri-hull design creates a whole new feeling on a pontoon,” that “[t]he outer pontoons are set slightly higher in the water, adding confident stability and nimble performance,” and that the design combines “the stability and versatility of a pontoon boat with the agility and performance of a Sea-Doo jet boat.”

BRP likewise touted its Intelligent Brake and Reverse system as making the Switch safer and easier to stop, representing that the system “greatly reduces stopping distances” and gives operators “more control and maneuverability at low speeds.” These representations were untrue, deceptive, and misleading: the same tri-hull design and low-speed deceleration that BRP marketed as sources of “confident stability” and “control” are, as BRP’s own recalls and the U.S. Coast Guard later confirmed, the mechanism by which the Switch boats take on water, nose-dive, and capsize.

When two class-action lawsuits are filed making the same claims against the same company, the courts usually try to stop wasted effort and messy rulings. The judges may consolidate the cases into one single lawsuit, pause one case until the other finishes, or dismiss the duplicate filing.