Just this week I was contacted by a passenger who was injured on a major cruise line. One of my first questions to him was, “When did your incident happen?” When the injured passenger told me 16 months ago I was disheartened. I was forced to turn down representing this injured man. Why? The statute of limitations had run on his claim.
When a person purchases a cruise line ticket, there are certain provisions within that ticket that you may not be aware of. One is that the claim must be brought to Federal Court in Miami. This is true for Royal Caribbean, Carnival and Norwegian Cruise claims. Another very important provision is that you must send in a notice of claim letter to the cruise line within 6 months of the date of your injury. The third, and a most important, clause that all passengers must know is that you have an extremely short statute of limitations to bring your claim against the cruise line. That time period is 1 year from the date of your injury. Normal personal injury cases in Florida have a statute of limitations of 4 years. For maritime (non-cruise) related personal injuries, the statute is 3 years (under general maritime law).
If you have been injured on a cruise, do not wait to consult with a personal injury attorney that knows the differences between injuries that happen on the land v. water. If you do not act in time and sit on your rights, you just may lose them.
