Miami Accident Lawyer Blog
Did You Fall on Your Cruise?
Imagine one minute you are enjoying a show on your relaxing cruise vacation. The next, you are exiting the theater and suddenly you are lying on the ground in serious pain. This is the experience of one Carnival Cruise passenger who slipped and fell on a wet tile floor just outside a carpeted theater on the ship. Like many cruise ship accidents, this happened when it was least expected.
Slip and falls can cause surprisingly serious injuries. In some cases, you may simply walk away with a bump or bruise. However, many slip and fall accidents can cause the following injuries, among others:
- Strains, sprains, and other soft tissue injuries
- Broken bones
- Back injuries
- Neck injuries
- Concussions and more serious traumatic brain injuries (TBIs)
- Spinal cord injury
Many of these injuries can cause severe pain and lack of mobility until recovery, which can keep you from working in the meantime. They also can result in medical bills for doctor visits, specialist visits, ongoing physical therapy, medications, and more. More serious injuries such as TBI or spinal cord injury can require medical treatment for months or years and can even result in long-term impairments and disabilities.
Financial Recovery for Your Cruise Ship Slip and Fall
Because many slip and fall victims incur substantial losses, it is important to know how you can seek compensation from the cruise line. The following are some important steps to financial recovery after this type of accident:
Act quickly – Following many personal injuries, you may have two or more years to take legal action against a liability party depending on the statute of limitations in your state. In Florida, you have four years to file a claim in most injury cases. However, cruise ship tickets have many provisions in the fine print, often including a provision that shortens the time limits for legal claims – often to one year. But most cruise ship cases, the statute of limitations is much less, usually one year from the date of the accident or the date the ship arrives back in port. Therefore, you should never delay in contacting an attorney who knows how to handle cruise ship claims as soon as you possibly can following an accident.
Proving negligence – You do not have the right to recover if you fell simply because you were clumsy. Instead, you must prove that the cruise line was negligent in some manner to cause your slip and fall. For example:
- The cruise line allowed a dangerous hazard to exist (such as water on the floor).
- The cruise line did not eliminate the hazard in a timely manner.
- The cruise line failed to warn passengers of the hazard with signs to use caution or block of the area while the hazard existed.
You must also prove the amount of damages that you incurred by presenting medical bills, pay statements, and other evidence of your pain, suffering, and related losses.
Call an Experienced Cruise Ship Injury Law Firm as Soon as Possible
There are many complexities in cruise ship cases that do not exist in other personal injury claims, so you need to speak with an attorney who has specific experience handling cruise ship slip and fall accident cases. Contact Gerson & Schwartz at (877) 475-2905 for a free consultation today.