In answering this question, we will confine ourselves to what you should do to help protect your legal rights.

The first thing you should do is check your cruise ticket and see what the ticket requires you to do for your cruise ship accident.

Typically, the cruise ship ticket or contract requires you to notify the cruise line of your cruise injury within six months of the date of your accident on the cruise ship. The ticket probably also will say that if you fail to so notify the cruise line of your cruise injury, you will be forever barred from collecting damages for your injury. If you do choose to go forward on your own in notifying the cruise line of your cruise injury, you should do this in such a way as to provide you with good proof that you did in fact alert the cruise line of your cruise injury. You should send the notice of your cruise injury in such a way as to provide you with proof of your having sent it and proof that the cruise line received it. Be sure to check your ticket carefully to familiarize yourself with the exact requirements of your particular voyage.

The ticket/contract with the cruise line also very likely has a provision requiring you to bring a lawsuit on your cruise ship injury claim within at most one year from the date on which you sustained your cruise ship injury. Again, be sure to check your ticket carefully to make sure that you fully understand exactly what it requires of you with respect to any and all deadlines for filing your cruise ship injury claim.

Because the failure to abide by the time limitations set forth in your cruise ticket/contract can preclude you from ever recovering for your cruise ship injury, it is imperative that you act quickly and it really does make sense for you to retain experienced cruise ship injury attorneys to assist you with your claim.

Typically not, because the deck is stacked against you. To get paid anything you have to abide by the contract you entered with the cruise line when you purchased your ticket from them and any failure to rigorously follow the terms of that contract can lead to your getting nothing. We know of attorneys who do not regularly practice cruise ship injury law who themselves were unable to follow the requirements of their injured client’s cruise contracts and ended up getting nothing for their clients.

We are also aware of many instances where the cruise lines appear to act towards their injured passengers as though settlement is possible, all the while knowing that the clock is ticking on the injured cruise ship passenger’s ability to file a cruise injury lawsuit in time to beat the too short statutes of limitations imposed on passengers by the cruise lines themselves.

Though we are aware of cruise lines offering a free cruise to individuals injured on one of their cruise vessels, we are not aware of a single instance where a cruise line has settled with a party not represented by an attorney for anything we consider close to what that party was entitled to for their cruise ship injury.

Cruise ship litigation is often difficult and time consuming, but if you want full and fair compensation for the injury you sustained on your cruise voyage, we strongly urge you to retain experienced cruise ship injury counsel.

Your cruise ticket almost certainly will require you to file suit in the city in which the cruise line is based.

Holland America generally requires you to file suit in Seattle, Washington. Royal Caribbean generally requires you to file your cruise ship injury cases in Miami, Florida.