Maritime Accident Lawyers Help Injured Cruise Ship Passengers
If you’ve come home hurt—not hale and hearty—from the cruise of a lifetime, find a maritime accident lawyer. These experts in personal injury and wrongful death law as it applies to cruise ship accidents may be able to put the spring back in your step. A successful civil lawsuit can recover millions toward your medical bills or other expenses. These high awards aren’t just self-serving repayments demanded for an individual’s pain and suffering. They also serve as court-ordered reminders to negligent cruise lines that personal injury won’t be tolerated on the high seas.
What a Maritime Accident Lawsuit Entails
If you’ve been injured in a maritime accident or suspect negligence in the spread of a communicable virus, take immediate action. If your injuries allow, get the names of witnesses at the scene so you can contact them later. Get first-aid help, and take some pictures of the accident scene before you leave, if possible. Then call an attorney in your home port city.
Experienced attorneys who specialize in maritime accident law are crucial to building a winning case because admiralty law has many layers. The accident might happen anywhere on the globe. A lawyer must know how to get information on any locale. Even identifying the legal jurisdictions can be complex. Cruise ships may board at American ports but be registered in foreign countries. Laws from both nations may apply.
If you sue, you’ll do so through the port city where you boarded. Specific laws apply there, as well. The International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea protects passengers and crew while sailing within U.S. or other members’ boundaries. This international maritime treaty governs crew competence and adherence to safety regulations. Maritime accident lawyers must know how all of these jurisdictions interact, and which laws can hurt or help your case.
Contact a maritime lawyer who practices in your port state, limited in the continental U.S. to Washington, California or Florida. If an attorney decides you’ve got a case for your slip-and-fall accident, assault and battery, or illness related to contagion, you’ll file a claim within twelve months, in most instances. Your lawyer will attempt to prove to the court that the cruise line was negligent in its duty to ensure your personal safety.
Who Can File a Claim of Negligence Against a Cruise Line
A maritime voyage holds risks, and that is why cruise ships are bound by strict laws and safety codes. Adherence is less than perfect, however, and that is why cruise lines also carry high indemnity insurance. They foresee lawsuits over unforeseen accidents at sea—that’s the nature of the business. And it’s no wonder. Maritime accidents can include:
- Overboard falls and disappearances
- Slips and falls on deck or around swimming pools
- Blows from objects falling from upper decks
- Assault and battery by a passenger
- Sexual assault by a passenger, intruder or crew member
If you’ve been injured in a maritime accident or suspect negligence in the spread of a communicable virus, take immediate action. If your injuries allow, get the names of witnesses at the scene so you can contact them later. Get first-aid help, and take some pictures of the accident scene before you leave, if possible. Then call an attorney in your home port city.
Restrictions to your right to file a lawsuit include any conditions listed on your cruise ticket and the viability of your particular case in court. A maritime accident lawyer won’t represent you if the odds of winning aren’t good. Personal injury or wrongful death cases are very expensive to prepare. When maritime law, especially in a distant locale, is thrown into the mix, the research and expert witness testimony that must be funded sends the pretrial budget into the tens of thousands.
If you have a clear case of negligence against a cruise line that has demonstrated poor safety in the past, however, you’re probably in. For instance, if you fell and fractured a bone because the handrail you grabbed was loose, negligence may be a valid claim. Providing safety measures such as guard rails of a certain height and warnings to passengers of hazards or impending storms is the responsibility of the cruise lines. It can be difficult to know if they are breaking a rule, though. No matter what your injury, if you feel it may be the management’s fault, consult a maritime accident attorney who knows the applicable regulations.
How Lawsuits Benefit Individuals and Others
If you are injured badly enough to warrant medical attention and/or time away from work to recuperate, the law considers that you’ve been damaged in quantifiable ways. That means that you can sue for negligence to recover money to pay your doctor bills, additional travel costs, and wages you would have received during your time disabled. If the accident was traumatic, such as a devastating overboard fall or a sexual assault, an award for physical pain and emotional suffering is a possibility. In short, if the court finds for your claim of negligence and penalizes the cruise line, monetary payments will be intended to make up for your physical, mental and fiscal damages. Wrongful death claims are based on the same laws and intentions of repaying a family for their loved one’s fatal accident.
In hearing these individual tort cases, the court serves the greater good as well. Each specific argument that maritime lawyers add to the books shapes and advances the law on maritime accidents. This paves the way for future victims to secure what they are due. It also keeps the issue in the news and on the minds of the honchos at cruise lines. Keeping the pressure on is one way to reduce the number of unfortunate injuries or deaths at sea.
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