Learn what you’re entitled to when boat fun leads to a boat injury. Check out these tips we have provided for you, then give us a call today.
Telling the Cruise Line About My Onboard Injury
If you are injured on a cruise the first thing you should do is seek appropriate medical care. Secondly you should report your injury to onboard board personnel, they would generally make out an accident report. You should try to get a copy of that report if at all possible and when you return you should contact an attorney who is competent and qualified to handle cruise ship injury cases.
Normally a formal written notice needs to be given to the cruise line within 180 days of your injury. If your claim cannot be amicably resolved, suit must be filed generally within 1 year of the date of injury and oftentimes in a location totally unconnected with where your accident occurred. For example if you’re injured on a Holland-America cruise, suit has to be filed in Seattle even though you depart out of Tampa on a cruise, a Carnival suit has to be filed in Miami. It’s very important that you properly contact an attorney who concentrates his practice in admiralty so that you don’t miss an important requirement and that you file your claim in the appropriate jurisdiction.
Being Injured While Docking a Boat
Oftentimes individuals who suffer electrical injuries not necessarily at their home but away from their home, and the first thing you should do is obviously ensure that you’re in a safe location, you should notify the owners of that facility, you should take photographs of any equipment, you want to photograph all of the equipment that’s involved, you want to get the names and addresses and phone numbers of any witnesses and if possible you want to secure the equipment that was involved in the injury.
If it cannot be secured you need to get any identifying marks on it like model numbers, manufacturers, serial numbers and things of that nature and have the injury investigated promptly by someone that’s qualified to investigate electrical injuries.
Accidents on Boats
- The first thing we like to do with boat accident cases is determine the type of boat on which the accident occurred
- If the accident happened on a cruise ship there are usually terms on the back of the ticket that got you onto the ship that talk about provisions
- You’re going to need to prove the negligence
I think the first thing that’s important is to characterize the type of boat on which the accident happened. There are things like cruise ship injuries. For example, you go out on a Carnival Cruise or Holland America Cruise and there’s an injury that’s suffered while you’re one of these commercial cruise lines. What’s important to know with respect to those type of claims is that as part of your ticket that you obtain before going on the ship, there will be certain provisions clearly set forth within your ticket, and these tickets are usually multi-page, and they cover many subjects. If you look through your ticket either before or after an injury, you’ll find out that these tickets provide that generally you have to give written notice of your injury usually within 180 days of the date of the injury setting forth specifically what happened and also your injuries and your treatment.
The other thing that’s important to know is that generally if your claim cannot be resolved amicably, that suit has to be filed in a particular location that is also set forth in the ticket. For example, on a Carnival Cruise line, suit has to be filed in Miami, usually in federal court. For Holland America as an example, suit has to be filed in Seattle in federal court. Even though you may be taking a cruise out of say Tampa, you leave and return to Tampa, your suit actually has to be filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida in Miami.
The same rules apply to cruise ship slip and falls, if you will, or trip and falls, and that is you have to prove some negligence, some carelessness on the part of the cruise line. It’s very important when an accident does happen on a cruise ship that first of all, if it’s applicable, take photographs of what caused you to fall. Make a mental note. Get names of witnesses, both individual innocent bystanders who might also be passengers, get the names of any crew members that came to your assistance, that cleaned up anything. Make sure you get their names. As I said, you can even take photographs of these individuals. If you make out a report, try to get a copy of the report.
See an attorney very quickly after you return because you need to get the facts together, the individuals together, witnesses and things like that, and to put together the letter to send to the cruise line. In addition to that, you’ll need that attorney to be able to put together a complaint or associate with an attorney that practices in the particular venue where suit has to be filed so that you can meet that very short statute of limitations. Normally that statute of limitations, at least here in Florida, is four years, but on a cruise ship, the statute of limitations is one year. A lot of people think it’s just a standard slip and fall case and they will not file within the one-year-statute of limitations or they won’t give the 180-day written notice, and that will jeopardize and sometimes block you from filing a claim for a fall on a cruise ship.
With respect to an injury on a small pleasure boat, the first question one has to ask would be is this accident an accident that’s subject to maritime or admiralty jurisdiction? That’s going to first concern itself with whether or not that boat was on a navigable water, a water on which commercial transactions, traffic, interstate commerce can be conducted. If there’s for example a small lake, admiralty and maritime jurisdiction will likely not apply, and that case can be filed in the state court. However, if the accident happens on a navigable water, one capable of interstate commerce, then you’re going to have admiralty or maritime jurisdiction, and you’ll find yourself very likely in federal court.
Again, the same thing applies. You’re going to need to prove the negligence. Sometimes you can prove what’s called the unseaworthiness of the vessel, but you’re going to need to do the same thing. That’s take photographs, make notes, get witnesses’ information, get crew members’ information, get a copy of your report.
Those are some of things about injuries on boats or cruise lines that’s very important to remember, and most importantly, see an attorney promptly after you’ve received any emergency medical condition. Contact an attorney and provide him the information that you’ve obtained.
Attacked by a Crew Member on a Cruise Ship
If you are attacked by a member of the crew you first want to make sure you’re in a position of safety, you’re going to want to get any necessary medical attention. You’re going to want to report the attack to the cruise line officials and also report the attack to the appropriate civilian law enforcement personnel, either in a foreign country to include when you return to United States to report it to the local police so it can be properly investigated and prosecuted.
Did you plan a boat day, cruise, or work in an area involving a boat or ship? Learn what to do when boat fun leads to a boat injury. If so, contact experienced Tampa Boat Accident Attorney Dennis Morgenstern.
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