Premise Liability
On Cruise Ships- Stay Safe At Sea
Most cruise lines have a fairly robust plan in place to release themselves from culpability for any injuries on the premises or ashore at the scheduled destination. If you and your friends are planning on taking a cruise or if you’re suffering an injury that occurred on a recent cruise, you should take the time to understand your rights and contact a skilled cruise ship accident injury attorney.
Your first course of action is to make sure you have a plan to stay safe. Enjoying a few drinks throughout the day is part of the fun of being on a cruise – none of you has to drive home for several days. But completely losing your inhibitions and throwing caution to the wind altogether could lead to your own personal injury or damages to others on board & ashore.
Cruise Ship
Loopholes
Cruise lines can try to limit your rights or completely release themselves from premise liability with the pages and pages of fine print at the bottom of your ticket. In addition, clauses and specifications can release the cruise line from injuries occurring shore side on any outing at the place you port.
Still, if you or any of your friends and family are injured on the cruise ship premises or on an excursion ashore, you should contact the personal-injury law firm of Neufeld, Kleinberg, & Pinkiert right away.
Cruise ships often can include language in their release forms and the fine print of their tickets that limits the statue of limitations to just 1 year (requiring that the cruise line be notified of any potential claim within six months!). Any claim after that period will likely not be accepted.
Your Vulnerabilities
Aboard
More often than not, your family will be safe aboard a cruise ship. In spite of loopholes available to them, it behooves cruise lines do to their level best to make sure their passengers are safe and protected. However, here are a few of the personal vulnerabilities you should be aware of when boarding a cruise:
Most cruise ships are registered in a country other than the United States.
Most cruises travel into international waters where US Law may not apply
International Maritime Law often applies when, for example, an incident occurs between individuals from two different countries on a ship registered in a third country along waters belonging to a fourth country
Until December 2014, few cruise ship related crimes were ever reported. however that law changed requiring
Most people that choose to spend the time and money to relax for a few days on a trusted cruise line do so with the assumption that they and their families are safe. If an injury has occurred on such a trip, contact the Dade and Broward personal injury attorneys of Neufeld, Kleinberg, & Pinkiert right away to start the conversation as to how we can pursue the fullest compensation for you and your family.
For our Dade offices call 305-931-6666. For Broward, call 954-523-8292. Or contact us via email right now.
