Unfortunately, serious accidents occur far more often than you may realize in cruise ships. For example, the Department of Transportation reported more than two dozen injuries and incidents on cruise lines, including a missing person and close to 20 cases of sexual assault.

Taking Legal Action to Hold the Cruise Ship Accountable

Under state and federal law, cruise ships are categorized as “common carriers.” This means they have a heightened duty of care in making sure their passengers are safe. As a result, when a cruise ship breaches this heightened duty of care and a passenger suffers a serious injury, the cruise line can be held liable for the passenger’s harms and losses.

A cruise ship injury or wrongful death claim could be filed against multiple entities, including:

• The cruise ship owner of the cruise ship;
• The company chartering the ship; and/or
• A third party contractor that inflicted harm on a passenger, or passengers.

Important Restrictions and Limitations You Need to Be Aware Of

Properly filing a cruise ship injury claim can get complicated very quickly. This is because cruise ships are governed by state, federal, and maritime law. There may be multiple investigations into a particular incident from different authorities including local police, the Coast Guard, etc.

In addition to the complex web of state, federal, and international laws that may come into play, it is important to understand that the terms and conditions on your passenger ticket will likely influence the viability of your claim.

For example, many courts have construed the terms on your passenger ticket as a contract between you and the cruise ship carrier. As a result, courts have accepted the change in legal venue and the drastically shortened period of time in which a passenger can file a civil claim against the cruise line. To be sure, some cruise lines dictate that a lawsuit may only be filed in specific jurisdictions such as Florida or California. Other cruise lines have required suits be filed in foreign countries like Italy. This is why it is so important to hire a Miami cruise ship injury lawyer who is experienced in this area of law.

Speak to a Miami Cruise Ship Injury Lawyer Right Away

If you or a family member is injured while on a cruise ship, our law firm is ready and willing to fight for you and pursue maximum compensation. As mentioned, the terms of your passenger ticket will play a large role in determining your legal rights, but a trend among the cruise lines is to limit the amount of time an injured passenger has to file a claim to just a few months. This is why swift action is so important. Contact the Miami wrongful death lawyers at the office of Alan Goldfarb, P.A. today to schedule a free consultation.

Resources:

chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-miami-cruise-ship-death-20171022-story.html

transportation.gov/mission/safety/passenger-cruise-ship-information

Your Legal Rights When Harmed On a Cruise Ship

There is a duty of care that is required for all motor vehicles, aircrafts, and watercrafts (including cruise ships). The operator of a cruise ship owes its passengers a heightened duty of safe transport under the Shipping Act of 1984, 46 U.S.C. §1702(6). This is because cruise ships departing from ports within the United States are considered common carriers. The heightened duty of care means that a cruise ship must make reasonable efforts to protect passengers from physical harm and ensure they arrive safely to their destination. This heightened duty of care applies to not just boat accidents, but protection from assault, rape, or other criminal acts by crew members or other passengers.

When a guest is injured aboard the cruise ship, they may have the grounds to file a personal injury claim against one or more of the following entities:

• the cruise ship owner;
• the company that chartered and/or operated the ship; and
• the company that sold the ticket to you or a loved one since they were acting as an agent of the cruise ship owner, operator or charterer.
  

Taking Legal Action Against a Cruise Ship Company Can Get Complicated

Filing a lawsuit against a large commercial cruise ship company is not the same as filing a claim against an auto insurance company in a fender-bender. The terms and conditions contained on the back of your cruise ship ticket can dramatically alter your legal rights to pursue financial restitution against the cruise line. For example, the court where suit must be filed could be governed by the terms on the ticket and many cruise lines purposefully require filing in company-friendly jurisdictions, or even in foreign countries. For example, the Costa Concordia capsized a few years ago causing serious injuries to passengers. Costa Concordia is owned by Carnival Corp., which is a U.S. company based outside Miami. However, the litigation involving this cruise ship accident took place in Italy and Italian law applied. Why? Because the ticket stated that any judicial matters would be heard in Italy, according to the ABA.

The cruise ticket may also require you to give notice of your injury to the cruise line within a finite period of time, usually between four and six months. They can also arbitrarily reduce the statute of limitations to one year from the date of the accident.

Contact Experienced Miami Cruise Ship Accident Lawyers

As you can see, taking legal action against a cruise ship is complicated and involves a myriad of state and federal laws. Do not fight this alone. Let an experienced attorney at the Miami office of Alan Goldfarb, P.A. advocate for you and fight for maximum compensation. Our firm has nearly four decades of experience taking on big cruise ship companies and we are ready to fight for you.

Resources:

law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode46a/usc_sec_46a_00001702—-000-.html

abajournal.com/magazine/article/for_vacationers_encountering_trouble_on_cruise_ships_u.s._laws

Dangers Of Cruising

Though it is too soon to know exactly what happened to lead to this terrible accident, incidents occurring upon cruise ships – thankfully, most of which have far less tragic results – happen regularly. Whose fault is it when an accident occurs, however? The cruise ship guest? Or the cruise line? Though each case will depend upon the individual circumstances and facts of the case, accidents that occur on cruise ships are often found to be a result of negligence on the part of the cruise ship to some extent.  Whether it is a slip and fall on a wet cruise deck, a trip down a narrow set of stairs, or drunken fall in the ship’s lounge, any time an incident occurs that is foreseeable, the property owner – or in this case, the cruise ship or cruise line – may be held liable for the injuries and losses sustained by the accident victim.

The Special Circumstance Of Alcohol-Related Cruise Accidents

One of the more popular add-ons available to cruise passengers in recent years is comprised of unlimited drink packages. Certainly it makes sense that passengers are going to drink on a cruise – after all, they are not driving, and they are on vacation – so why not?  However, an argument can be made that by offering these unlimited alcohol packages to cruisers, the cruise lines are setting themselves up for higher risk of accidents, from slips and falls on the decks to falling overboard. Some of the elements of a premises liability case include a property owner’s knowledge of a hazardous situation and the subsequent failure to fix the situation. Indeed, another argument can be made that offering a vacationing passenger the opportunity to drink as much as they want can create a hazardous situation, and if a passenger then becomes injured as a result, the cruise ship must bear some blame.

Have You Been Injured On A Cruise? Alan Goldfarb, P.A. Can Help

If you have experienced an accident while on a cruise ship or other type of boat, the attorneys at Alan Goldfarb, P.A. can help. After nearly four decades of handling these types of cases, we have the experience you can count on to get the results you deserve. The Miami cruise ship accident attorneys at the office of Alan Goldfarb, P.A. will go over your case to assess the best way to proceed and will develop an effective case strategy to help you receive the compensation you need for your losses. Contact us now to schedule your appointment and let us help you get started today.

Resources:

huffingtonpost.com/spencer-aronfeld/the-dangers-of-prepaid-be_b_8687992.html

cruisecritic.com/articles.cfm?ID=1470

local10.com/news/search-suspended-for-man-who-went-overboard-cruise-ship

Cruise Ship Accidents

Even though accidents and incidents such as these, in which passengers fall overboard, make national news when they occur, they are rare – thankfully. However, all types of accidents happen routinely on cruise ships, including slips and falls that result in a variety of injuries ranging from minor to severe. When passengers are injured during their cruise, the cruise line is often asked to accept the blame and bear responsibility for damages. In order to recover for injuries incurred during a cruise ship accident such as a slip and fall, the victim must be able to prove that the accident was caused in some way by negligence on the part of the cruise ship or its personnel. Slips and falls happen in many different ways on a cruise ship, including falling down narrow or slippery stairs, slipping and falling on a wet deck, or tripping over some sort of uneven walking surface. Depending upon the circumstances, these conditions may be the result of negligence on the part of the cruise ship personnel; they cruise line has the duty to take reasonable steps to ensure safe conditions for its passengers and, when they fail to do so, they can be held accountable for any injuries that occur due to that failure.

Older Cruisers Account For Half Of A Ship’s Medical Visits

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), older passengers age 65 and over account for approximately half of all medical care received on cruise ships. Additionally, out of all medical visits on board a cruise ship, anywhere from twelve to eighteen percent are a result of a slip and fall. As many realize, older people as a group are more prone to slips and falls, which allows us to make sense of these statistics. Cruise lines, as they often have a large percentage of older passengers on board for any particular itinerary, have an even greater responsibility to ensure the safety of their more senior clientele.

Turn To Us For Help With Your Cruise Ship Accident Injuries

If you have been injured on a cruise ship, contact the office of Alan Goldfarb, P.A. in Miami today. At the office of Alan Goldfarb, P.A., our cruise ship and boat accident attorneys have a wide range of experience handling all types of personal injury and accident cases just like yours. We will work with you to help you get the relief you are entitled to when you have suffered injuries and losses as a result of someone else’s negligence. Contact us now to get started today with your initial consultation at no cost or obligation.

The Case

The case that caused the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to change precedent involved an elderly couple on a cruise to Bermuda. While the ship was docked in port at Bermuda, the husband slipped and fell. Due to his injuries, he was taken back to the ship so the ship’s medical personnel could treat his injuries. But, it is alleged, he had to wait for hours to be seen by the ship’s doctor, and even after he was seen he later died. His wife sued the cruise line based on a theory that the cruise line was responsible for the death because of how their doctor treated her husband. A lower court dismissed the case based on old precedent that gives ship companies immunity from the negligence of their doctors. This is known as the Barbetta rule.

Prior Precedent

The Barbetta rule came from a case in the late 1980s. In that case, a couple was on a cruise to Mexico where the wife came under the care of the ship’s doctors. According to the couple in a lawsuit they filed, the doctor who treated her was negligent because he failed to diagnose her case of diabetes, and she suffered damages as a result. When the case got to the Court of Appeals, the court stated that ships are not responsible for the actions of their doctors. In any other situation, other than on a ship, the companies that employ doctors are generally liable for what mistakes their doctors make. The reason ships were given immunity was because historically ships contracted with their doctors to work on their ships, and they did not control how the doctors practiced medicine. It was thought, therefore, that because of the doctors’ independence, the ships should not be responsible for their doctors’ negligence. If they were, it was argued, the ships would not want to hire doctors and the passengers would suffer as a result.

New Law

Fast forward to today and the situation is very different. In making its decision to overturn the Barbetta rule the court looked at some very important factors as to why cruise lines should be liable for their doctors’ negligence:

• Today every major cruise line has doctors or other medical personnel that go on cruises to look after passengers.
• Those doctors are paid and controlled by the cruise lines.
• The time when it is difficult to get medical personnel to work on ships is in the past.
• If a doctor is negligent to a cruise employee, the ship will be held liable, a standard that could be applied to passengers as well.

These are some of the arguments the court put forward to justify its reversal of the Barbetta rule. It is not yet clear in this case whether the ship’s medical personnel were actually negligent in how they treated the man. But now the man’s survivors will have a chance to prove their case in court, and the ship will no longer enjoy this broad immunity.

At Alan Goldfarb, P.A. we know how to deal with cruise line injuries in Miami. We have the experience needed to give your case the respect it deserves. If you are dealing with an accident that took place during a cruise, contact us so we can help you.