Common Injuries Aboard Cruise Ships

Each year, millions of Americans embark on cruises to enjoy a little time away from the daily grind. Older Americans and families are among the most likely individuals to embark on cruises. While many report the time of their lives, others sustain injuries while cruising. They can face major hurdles when it comes to filing a lawsuit. Nonetheless, lawsuits against cruise lines are filed and won all the time. In this article, we’ll discuss cruise ship injury lawsuits and the types of lawsuits you see filed against cruise ships.

Premises liability lawsuits 

By and large, the vast majority of lawsuits filed against cruise ships involve allegations of premises liability. These are more often called “slip and fall” lawsuits, but premises liability is a broader category altogether. It includes but is not limited to slip and fall lawsuits. That being said, slip and falls are a good place to start.

Cruise ships, like all other proprietors, are expected to keep safe premises. That means that if someone is injured due to a foreseeable danger, they are liable for the injury. Slips, trips, and falls are all an issue for cruise ships. To win such a suit, you must prove that the danger was foreseeable or created by the cruise ship employees.

Other premises liability lawsuits include dangers intrinsic to boats. We’ll handle these claims in a separate section.

Lawsuits related to poor captaining 

Captains are expected to avoid dangerous storms and other conditions that could literally rock their boats and cause injury to passengers. If they don’t, and passengers are injured, then the cruise line would be held liable for those injuries. Captains occasionally traverse dangerous waters in unfavorable conditions leading to passenger injury.

Negligent security lawsuits 

The most disturbing lawsuits to emerge from the cruise industry involve negligent security. Often, this involves young people, teenagers, and children. Sexual assaults aboard cruise ships are not rare. It has been a major problem for the cruise industry due to clouded jurisdictional issues and the relative anonymity of the guests.

One important case involved several men plying a teenage girl with alcohol they ordered from the bar. The staff of the cruise ship did not intervene even as the men were feeding her alcohol. She was eventually raped and the family sued on the basis that the bartenders and staff facilitated the rape by providing the men with alcohol that they gave to the girl.

Sometimes its staff that commits the sexual assault making the cruise ship automatically liable. Other times, plaintiffs need to establish the cruise line’s liability through action or inaction. The cruise ship has a duty of care to protect guests and markets their vacations to families.

Talk to a Cruise Ship Injury Attorney Today 

Halpern, Santos & Pinkert represent the interests of those who have been injured aboard a cruise ship. Call our Florida personal injury attorneys today to schedule a free consultation and learn more about how we can help.