Beware of the Cruise Ship Ticket Fine Print! Cruise Lines insert legal clauses in their ticket-contracts that may govern most of the issues arising out of a Maritime Injury Claim. Call Cruise Ship Accident Lawyer, Mark J. Leeds, for a Free Legal Consultation.
When most people get on a cruise, they don’t fully realize how their vacation might get turned upside down in a second – An accident occurs and an innocent victim ends up getting injured on a cruise.
It happens more often that it should, and the problem is that most cruise passengers may not be aware of their rights, and even worse, they might not be aware of certain dispositions laid out in their cruise ticket-contract that may substantially affect the filing of a cruise ship injury claim against a cruise line.
Now, I am going to say this now, much in the same way I’ve insisted on in some of the other pages of this Cruise Ship Accident Lawyer website: BEWARE OF THE CRUISE SHIP TICKET FINE PRINT!
Every cruise line inserts certain elements regarding a possible maritime lawsuit against them for injuries occurring on their cruises. Conveniently, for the cruise line, they include them in the fine-print section of the cruise ship ticket-contract they sold you – and to say they are somewhat concealed within that fine-print section might be an understatement.
While I use the words cruise ship ticket-contract, this may very well include other documents and papers, and not simply the ticket you boarded with. Examples of where this fine print may be found include, but are not limited to: their website; booking agreement; brochures; online access to their website, entered by clicking upon a disclaimer, etc.
There are two main dispositions that may apply to your maritime injury claim:
- Forum Selection
- Statutes of Limitation
Which is why, depending on the particular stipulations laid out by a cruise line in the cruise ship ticket-contract you bought from them, you may only be able to file a maritime injury claim in the state of Florida.
Cruise Ship Ticket Fine Print: Cruise Line Forum Selection
Many cruise lines include a forum selection clause in their cruise ship ticket-contracts, limiting the filing of a maritime injury claim for compensation to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida – and this is regardless of where you live or the state you reside on, the port that you sailed from, or where exactly the accident occurred when the cruise was at sea.
As such, if you were injured on a cruise ship and wish to file a maritime injury claim against the cruise line, you may not just need any cruise ship injury lawyer; instead, you may very well need a Florida Cruise Ship Injury Lawyer.
Some of the cruise lines that select Florida as the forum and venue in which to file a maritime injury claim or cruise ship lawsuit include, among many others, the following cruise line companies:
- Azimara Cruise Line
- Carnival Cruise Lines
- Celebrity Cruise Lines
- Costa Cruise Line
- Costa Crociere Cruise Line
- Norwegian Cruise Line
- MSC Cruise Line
- Oceania Cruises
- Seabourn Cruise Line
- SeaDream Cruise Line
- Silversea Cruise Line
- Star Clippers Cruise Line
- Regent Seven Seas Cruise Line
- Royal Caribbean Cruise Line
All of these cruise lines are either based, or have their headquarters in Florida; whether it is Fort Lauderdale or Miami.
Cruise Ship Ticket Fine Print: Cruise Line Forum Selection: Shute v. Carnival – Landmark U.S. Supreme Court Case
Shute v. Carnival is the landmark case, decided around two decades ago, where the Supreme Court of the United States rendered a judgment in favor of Carnival Cruise Lines, and sustained Carnival’s right to insert and enforce a “Forum Selection” Clause in their cruise ship ticket-contracts – meaning that their cruise passengers must only file a maritime injury claim against them in the courts of the state of Florida.
Just so you have a better grasp and idea of the concept of Forum Selection, here are the facts of the Shute case:
- A Carnival Cruise Ship sailed from Los Angeles to Mexico.
- The Shute Family was onboard that cruise.
- One of the Shute family members was injured on the cruise.
- The Shute’s file a maritime injury lawsuit in Oregon.
Carnival moved to dismiss the case for lack of jurisdiction, contending that there was a clause in the cruise ship ticket-contract, limiting the filing of a claim to the location of Carnival’s Headquarters in Miami, Florida.
In opposing the argument from Carnival, who in order to avoid paying US taxes was incorporated in Panama, the Shute Family claimed that if the case was removed to Florida, then they’d have to travel all the way to Florida from Los Angeles every time something related to the lawsuit merited their presence in Miami, leaving them with an unfair economic hardship in order to purse their claim.
After all the arguments were made, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed with Carnival and ruled the Shute’s would have to file a lawsuit for their injuries in the city of Miami.
Ever since the Shute case was decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, most cruise lines have gone out of their way to also include a Forum Selection Clause in their corresponding cruise ship ticket-contracts.
I urge you to take all the time that you need to read the entirety of the cruise ship ticket-contract. A wiser idea? Get in contact with a maritime injury attorney immediately for a free legal consultation. Call me now, and I will answer any questions you may have about these complicated maritime law issues.
Cruise Ship Ticket Fine Print: Statutes of Limitation
What are Statutes of Limitation? Simple. It’s the amount of time you have to file a maritime injury claim (cruise ship lawsuit) from the very moment that the accident occurred. In many cases the victim may only have one year from the date of the accident to file a maritime injury claim against the Florida Cruise Line and all negligent responsible parties.
Some cruise lines even include cruise ship ticket-contract stipulations, which require you to notify them about the event or accident within a strict timeframe.*
As a Florida Cruise Ship Accident Lawyer with over 30 years’ experience in personal injury law, I have had to rush around and file claims at the last minute when a client arrived with an older claim – just a couple of days before the deadline disposed in the cruise ship ticket-contract. So, one of the first things you are going to need to do in a Florida cruise ship accident case is to anticipate the need to file a lawsuit; regardless of whether you’re ready for filing it or not.
You have numerous rights that safeguard you as a cruise ship passenger. These rights are protected by the Law of the State of Florida and the Constitution of the United States of America. If you have been harmed or were victim of a cruise ship crime, or sustained injuries in an accident aboard a cruise ship, get in touch with a Florida Cruise Ship Injury Lawyer right away for a free legal consultation.
Call me right now and we can discuss your cruise ship accident situation – free of charge – and determine whether you may be able to file a cruise ship injury claim for monetary compensation.
*I strongly suggest that you do not totally rely upon the information and content found on this page, as it relates to the cruise lines that select Florida as the venue in which to file a maritime claim and the time-periods for filing that claim from the moment of the accident; I have no control over the changes that each cruise line may make in their ticket-contracts after the moment that this website content is published. Maybe by the time that you read this, a couple of the cruise lines mentioned above will have changed their time limits to file a maritime injury claim against them, the notice requirement for the filing of a lawsuit, or maybe even the place for filing a claim. While I would like to update this website regularly, there is not a reasonably dependable manner of finding out about contractual changes made by the cruise line industry in their ticket-contracts until after the fact. Also, sometimes out of state lawyers – as in, not licensed in Florida – can get a one-time-basis authorization to represent a client in Florida, and some Federal Court Admitted lawyers can actually work in between court districts without the need for a Florida lawyers license; however, most attorneys will surely need a Florida based and licensed lawyer to associate with them as co-counsel at the very least.