Cruise Ship Passenger Accident & Injury Claims

What you need to do to file a claim for a cruise ship accident depends on the terms you accepted when you purchased your ticket. Many tickets come with terms and conditions that require passengers to pursue arbitration for all claims against the cruise line. If your claim is subject to mandatory arbitration (and the terms and conditions are legally enforceable), you must file your claim in the appropriate arbitration forum. If your claim isn’t subject to mandatory arbitration, you will need to go to court.

In either scenario, it will be important to hire an experienced Miami cruise ship accident attorney to represent you. Your attorney may be able to negotiate a settlement without going through the full arbitration or litigation process. However, in any case, you will need experienced legal representation to recover the financial compensation you deserve.

Where you need to file your claim also depends on the terms and conditions of your cruise. For example, many cruise lines require passengers to file their claims in Miami, but some require them to file their claims in other cities. Our firm represents cruise ship passengers in claims nationwide, so a Miami cruise ship accident attorney at Brais Law Firm can help you regardless of where you need to file.

If you have a cruise ship accident claim, there are actually two deadlines you need to meet to preserve your legal rights. First, you must provide adequate notice to the cruise line within six months of the accident. Second, you must file your claim within a year of the accident. If you miss either of these deadlines, you may not be able to recover your accident-related losses.

The types of compensation available to cruise ship passengers are similar to those available to individuals who have other types of personal injury claims. If your accident was the result of the cruise line’s negligence, a cruise ship accident lawyer may be able to help you recover compensation for your:

• Medical treatment, therapy, and medications
• Necessary travel and other out-of-pocket expenses
• Loss of income and benefits
• Loss of future earning capacity
• Pain, suffering and post-traumatic stress
• Loss of companionship, consortium, and enjoyment of life

The amount you can recover in each of these categories depends entirely on the severity of your injuries and their impacts on your daily life. When you hire an attorney to represent you, he or she will use their experience to help you seek the total compensation you are rightfully owed.

As long as your cruise touches a U.S. port at some point during the voyage, your claim is not subject to any cap on damages. In this scenario, damages caps are prohibited under federal admiralty law.

There are several common grounds for claims against cruise lines. Broadly speaking, claims against cruise lines are rooted in the law of negligence. If you were injured in an accident resulting from cruise line negligence, you are entitled to just compensation. This includes common forms of negligence such as:

• Hiring unqualified or inexperienced crew
• Failing to conduct adequate background screenings on crew members
• Failing to provide adequate security
• Failing to provide adequate supervision around pools, roller coasters, and other high-risk areas
• Inadequate cleaning or maintenance
• Inadequate safety precautions onboard

In some cases, it will be possible to sue the cruise line for an accident during a shore excursion. This is important because pursuing claims against excursion operators can be difficult—especially in foreign countries. If the cruise line failed to duly investigate the safety risks associated with a shore excursion it promoted to its passengers, this is one scenario in which it may be possible to file a claim against the cruise line for an excursion accident.

It is possible to sue the cruise line for injuries and assaults perpetrated by passengers in some cases as well. For example, if the cruise line failed to provide adequate security, if it failed to properly deal with a passenger who was a known risk to others, or if it overserved someone who was drunk, these are all scenarios in which the cruise line could be liable. If you were injured or assaulted by a passenger onboard a cruise ship under any scenario, you should speak with a Miami cruise ship accident attorney about your legal rights.

Technically, the answer to this question is “No.” There is nothing that says you have to hire an attorney to represent you. With that said, if you don’t hire an attorney, you stand virtually no chance of recovering the financial compensation you deserve.

There are a couple of reasons why. First, if you don’t hire an attorney, the cruise line isn’t likely to take your claim seriously. It will give you the run around, and it will try to push you off until you simply go away. Second, even if you get the cruise line’s attention, without adequate legal knowledge, you won’t know how to prove liability or calculate the damages you are entitled to recover.

No, you do not have to pay anything out-of-pocket to hire a Miami cruise ship accident attorney. At Brais Law Firm, we represent all of our clients on a contingency fee basis. This means that our clients don’t pay anything unless we win.