Injuries on Cruise Ships
Common injuries on cruise ships include traumatic brain injuries, closed head trauma, tendon separations, fractured limbs or skull or pelvis, disc herniations or ruptures, and severed limbs. Maritime law governs lawsuits based on injuries, sexual assaults, illnesses, or wrongful deaths aboard a cruise ship. Maritime law is a complicated group of laws that includes federal and state statutes, conventions, and treaties. What you must establish to obtain remedies for your losses depends on the circumstances and your reason for being on the ship. Different rules apply to passengers and crew members.
To recover damages under general federal maritime law, a cruise ship passenger who is injured due to the cruise line’s negligence needs to be able to prove the defendant’s legal duty to protect them, the defendant’s breach of this duty, actual and proximate cause, and actual harm.
A cruise ship company owes passengers a duty of reasonable care under the circumstances.
This includes a duty to not create dangerous conditions and to provide warnings when the cruise line is actually or constructively aware of a dangerous condition. When, for example, a passenger breaks a bone due to a slippery deck, our Regent Seven Seas Cruises injury attorneys would try to show that the defendant was actually or constructively aware of the danger of the slippery deck but failed to provide warnings.
Seamen who work aboard a cruise ship can also recover damages for their losses as a result of injuries sustained on the cruise ship, but they may pursue remedies under the Jones Act. Under the Jones Act, which sets a lower negligence standard than general maritime law does, a seaman injured in the course of employment can file a civil action against their employer.
