If you were hurt on a cruise that sailed out of Miami, the law that governs your case is not the Florida personal injury law you might expect. It is federal maritime law, and it runs on a different and much shorter clock. The ticket you clicked “agree” to almost certainly gives you one year to file suit, not the years you would have after a car accident, and it may require written notice of your claim within six months. Most passengers never read that language until a lawyer points it out, and by then months have often already gone by.
I am Prosper Shaked, the attorney behind Prosper Injury Attorneys. My office is in North Miami Beach, a short drive from PortMiami and Port Everglades, two of the busiest cruise ports in the country, and I represent injured passengers throughout Florida. Cruise injury cases follow their own body of federal maritime law, not the Florida rules most injury cases use, and the sooner you call, the more I can do to protect your claim.
When you call my office at (305) 694-2676, you talk to a real attorney, not a screener, and most of the time that attorney is me, either on that first call or later the same day. I will walk through what happened, how it happened, what your injuries are, and what evidence still exists. Usually I can tell you on that one call whether you have a claim worth pursuing.
The consultation is free, and I do not charge a fee unless I recover money for you. If there is a preservation letter that needs to go out to the cruise line, the sooner I know about your case, the sooner I can send it.
Why Hire a Miami Cruise Ship Injury Lawyer
Most people who call me about a cruise injury have already lost time they did not know they were losing. The ship has sailed on to its next itinerary, the security video is on a rewrite cycle, and a contractual deadline they never read is already running. What a cruise injury lawyer does in the first weeks is different from what happens in an ordinary injury case, and it decides more cases than anything that happens later.
The One-Year Deadline Most Passengers Never Read
You may have as little as one year from the date of your injury to file a lawsuit against the cruise line, and as little as six months to give written notice of your claim. That is not the Florida statute of limitations. Under general maritime law the default deadline to sue is actually three years (46 U.S.C. § 30106), but federal law lets a passenger carrier shorten that by contract down to a floor of one year to sue and six months to give notice (46 U.S.C. § 30526), and many of the major lines that sail from PortMiami and Port Everglades write their tickets to those minimum limits, including Carnival and Royal Caribbean, along with Norwegian Cruise Line, MSC Cruises, Celebrity Cruises, and Virgin Voyages. The clause is buried in the passage contract you accepted when you booked. Miss the deadline and a strong case can be barred before anyone looks at the merits. The single most useful thing you can do is call before you assume you have time.
Cruise injury deadlines run on a much shorter clock: the passenger ticket can require written notice within 6 months and suit within one year, far less than an ordinary injury case.
Where a Cruise Ship Injury Case Actually Gets Filed
The same ticket that shortens your deadline almost always tells you where you have to sue. Cruise lines put forum-selection clauses in their passage contracts, and courts enforce them. For the lines that operate out of South Florida, that forum is usually the federal court in Miami, the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, whose Miami division sits in the Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. United States Courthouse downtown. If the ticket selects that forum, it generally does not matter that you live in another state or boarded in another port. A passenger who files in the wrong court can have the case dismissed and lose the deadline in the process. Knowing where the case belongs before anything is filed is part of handling it correctly from day one.
Preserving Evidence on a Ship You Have Already Left
By the time you are home, the evidence that proves your case has sailed on with the ship to its next port. Cruise ships run extensive closed-circuit camera systems, keep incident reports and medical logs in the onboard infirmary, and carry the crew and passenger witnesses who saw what happened, and none of that stays put. When I take a cruise case, my first move is to send the cruise line a notice of claim, and I build a preservation request into that same letter, demanding that the line hold the video, the incident report, the infirmary records, and anything else relevant to what happened. I send it by FedEx with signature required, because I need proof it arrived, and I confirm delivery inside the six-month notice window the contract sets. A letter that goes out in month two protects evidence that a letter in month eight cannot.
We Deal with the Cruise Line, You Focus on Recovering
Cruise lines are among the most experienced injury defendants in the country. They keep in-house risk departments and a short roster of maritime defense firms that do little else, and they count on an unrepresented passenger missing the forum-selection clause or the six-month notice deadline. Once you hire my office, the line’s adjusters and its maritime counsel deal with me, not with you. I handle the notice of claim, the preservation demands, the filing deadline, and the fight over the evidence, while you deal with your treatment.
Cruise Ship Injury Deadlines and Numbers to Know
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These are the numbers that decide cruise cases. They come from the passage contract and from federal maritime law, not from Florida’s injury statutes, which is exactly why they surprise people.
| Number | What it means |
|---|---|
| 1 year | The deadline to file suit that many major cruise lines write into the ticket. It is the shortest period federal law allows a passenger carrier to impose for a seagoing vessel under 46 U.S.C. § 30526 |
| 6 months | The deadline to give the cruise line written notice of your claim, again the shortest federal law allows the line to require for a seagoing vessel. This is why the preservation letter cannot wait |
| 3 years | The default deadline to sue for a maritime personal injury when no contract shortens it, under 46 U.S.C. § 30106. The ticket contract almost always overrides it down to one year |
| 3 nautical miles | The line offshore that often determines which death statute applies. A death that happens beyond it on the high seas usually falls under the Death on the High Seas Act (46 U.S.C. § 30301 and following) |
| S.D. Fla. (Miami) | The federal court where cruise injury suits against the South Florida lines usually must be filed, because of the ticket’s forum-selection clause |
How a Cruise Ship Injury Claim Is Different from a Florida Injury Case
A cruise injury claim is a federal maritime case, and that changes the rules from the ground up. There is no PIP, no Florida serious-injury threshold, and no Florida two-year negligence deadline. The cruise line owes its passengers reasonable care under the circumstances. That means the line is not automatically responsible just because you were hurt on its ship. It is responsible when it was negligent, and for the kind of hazard you find on land as much as at sea, that usually means proving the line knew or should have known about the dangerous condition and did nothing about it. A wet deck no one reported and no one had time to notice is treated differently from a wet deck the crew walked past for an hour.
Fault is handled under pure comparative negligence, the maritime rule. That is more forgiving than Florida road-accident law, where a 2023 change bars you from recovering anything once you are found more than fifty percent at fault. Maritime law has no such cutoff. Even if you are found ninety percent at fault, you can still recover the remaining ten percent of your damages. Your recovery is reduced by your share of the blame, not eliminated by it. The tradeoffs run the other way: the deadlines are shorter, the forum is fixed by contract, and the defendant is a sophisticated repeat player. This is why a general personal injury approach does not fit a cruise case, and why the early procedural moves matter more than they do anywhere else.
One clarification, because it trips people up: this page is about passengers. If you were working aboard the ship as a crew member when you were hurt, your claim falls under a different body of law, the Jones Act, which protects seamen and carries its own rules and deadlines.
Common Cruise Ship Accidents and Injuries We Handle
Cruise injury cases in Florida come in many forms, but what decides most of them is the same question: what the cruise line knew about the danger and how it responded. They are not all slip-and-falls by the pool, though we see plenty of those:
- Slip, trip, and fall injuries on wet pool decks, freshly cleaned floors, and poorly lit stairwells, where the question is almost always whether the crew knew about the hazard.
- Injuries from the ship’s own equipment and transport: automatic doors, elevators, gangways, tenders, and the trams and shuttles that move passengers around private islands and port areas.
- Norovirus, Legionnaires’ disease, and other outbreaks tied to the ship’s food, water, or sanitation.
- Assaults and other crimes by crew members or other passengers, where the question is what the line knew about the risk and how it responded.
- Shore excursion injuries on zip lines, catamarans, jet skis, buses, and guided tours booked through the cruise line.
- Overboard and missing-passenger cases, which raise their own investigative and legal questions.
Some of these have their own detailed pages. If you want the fuller picture, we have written about the most common cruise ship injuries we see in Miami and about how cruise ship accidents actually happen. Whatever put you here, if it is not on this list, call and ask.
Can I Sue the Cruise Line for Norovirus or Another Illness?
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Yes, an illness can be the basis for a claim, but proving it takes more than showing you got sick on the ship. Cruise ships are recurring sites for norovirus and, less often, Legionnaires’ disease, and when an outbreak traces back to the line’s food handling, water systems, or sanitation, the same reasonable-care standard applies. The hard part is causation. The line will argue you picked the illness up ashore, or from another passenger, or that it did everything the situation called for. Building an illness case means documenting the timeline, the onboard medical visits, the ship’s own outbreak reporting, and, where it exists, the pattern of prior complaints. It is provable, but it is not automatic, and the same short deadlines apply.
Can I Sue a Cruise Ship Doctor?
Often yes, and the law on this has shifted in injured passengers’ favor. For years, cruise lines argued they could not be held responsible for the malpractice of the doctors and nurses in the onboard medical center, treating them as independent contractors the line had nothing to do with. That defense has lost much of its force. Under current federal maritime law in the Eleventh Circuit, which covers the cases filed in Miami, a cruise line can be held responsible for the negligence of its onboard medical staff when the facts show the line presented that staff as its own and controlled how they worked. Whether it applies turns on the details of the ship’s medical department and the care you received, which is exactly what we investigate. Onboard medical care goes wrong in recognizable ways: a heart attack or stroke waved off as indigestion or seasickness, a serious infection sent back to the cabin, a critically ill passenger who should have been taken off the ship to a hospital ashore hours sooner than they were. When it happens, the ship’s medical records and the treatment timeline are the case, and the same short deadlines apply, so they need to be preserved early.
Who Is Liable for a Cruise Ship Injury?
Liability for a cruise ship injury can fall on the cruise line itself, on a crew member whose conduct the line is responsible for, or on a separate company that ran the activity where you were hurt. Which one it is depends on who was negligent and what they knew, and it is not always the name on the side of the ship.
Against the line, the claim usually turns on notice. For a hazard like a spill or a broken step, you generally have to show the line had actual or constructive notice of the condition and failed to fix it or warn about it. The line is not an insurer of your safety, and “I was hurt on your ship” is the start of a case, not the end of one. Where a crew member causes the harm directly, whether through negligent operation of the ship’s equipment or worse, the line’s responsibility is broader.
Shore Excursions and Tender Injuries
When you are hurt on a shore excursion, the company that ran it is usually a separate business from the cruise line, and that changes who you can sue. On a zip line, a snorkeling catamaran, a tour bus, or a tram on a private island, that operator is often a separate company, sometimes a foreign one, and the cruise line will be quick to say the operator is an independent contractor it is not responsible for. Whether that argument holds depends on how the excursion was sold and marketed, what the tickets and waivers say, and how much control the line actually exercised. These cases can involve more than one defendant, more than one insurer, and sometimes more than one forum. You do not need to untangle any of that before you call. Tell me what happened on the excursion and figuring out who is actually responsible is my job, not yours.
What Is a Cruise Ship Injury Case Worth?
There is no honest way to put a dollar figure on a cruise injury case without knowing the facts: how serious and permanent the injury is, how clear the line’s fault is, and what evidence survived. What I can tell you is that the cases that resolve well are the ones where the evidence got locked down early, before it could be overwritten or lost.
One of my clients was standing on a path on a private island the cruise line operates, taking photographs. She had been standing in the same spot for at least a minute, in plain view, when one of the multi-passenger trams the line uses to move people around the island came through and struck her, throwing her from where she stood. The driver simply never saw a stationary person standing directly in the path. The force of the impact left physical evidence of the collision on the tram itself. Because we moved quickly to establish what happened and to hold the cruise line responsible for how its transport was being operated on an island it controls, we were able to resolve the case in her favor. Most cases are not that dramatic, and they do not need to be. What the ones that resolve well have in common is that the early investigation, not the eventual argument, is usually what determines the result.
Wrongful Death on a Cruise Ship
When a cruise passenger dies, which law governs the family’s claim depends on where the death happened. A death that occurs on the high seas, beyond three nautical miles from the shore of the United States, generally falls under the Death on the High Seas Act (46 U.S.C. § 30301 and following). DOHSA is narrow in a way that surprises families: it limits recovery to pecuniary losses, the financial support and services the family lost, and does not allow recovery for the grief and loss of companionship that state wrongful death law would. A death that happens closer to shore, in territorial waters or in port, may instead fall under general maritime law or Florida’s Wrongful Death Act, which can allow a broader recovery. The difference of a few miles can change what a family is entitled to, which is one more reason these cases need to be evaluated carefully and early. If your family lost someone on a cruise, we can talk through which law applies to your situation.
What to Do After a Cruise Ship Injury
If you are reading this soon after getting home, here is what protects your case:
- Report the injury to the ship and get the incident documented. Ask for a copy of the incident report and the name of the officer who took it. Onboard medical treatment also creates a record, so use the ship’s infirmary if you are hurt.
- Photograph everything you can: the hazard that hurt you, the surrounding area, your injuries, and anything the crew did or did not do about it. Photos taken on the ship are evidence you cannot recreate later.
- Get the names and contact information of any witnesses, passengers and crew alike. Once everyone scatters to different states and countries, they are very hard to find.
- Keep your ticket, your booking confirmation, your excursion receipts, and anything the line or your booking agent sent you. Those documents identify the exact sailing and the contract terms that govern your case.
- Note the deadline. Your right to sue may expire one year from the date of injury, and written notice may be due within six months. Treat the earliest possible date as your deadline.
- Call before you talk to the cruise line’s claims department: (305) 694-2676. A short call will tell you whether you have a case worth pursuing and what needs to be preserved right now.
Common Mistakes That Cost Cruise Injury Clients
In cruise cases, the mistakes that most often sink a claim come down to the same thing: treating a maritime case like an ordinary Florida injury case while the short deadlines run and the ship’s evidence disappears. The cases that turn out worse than they should have usually share a few of these:
- Assuming you have the same time you would have after a car accident. The one-year suit deadline and six-month notice window are the single most common way a good cruise case is lost.
- Waiting to get the video preserved. Cruise ship camera footage is overwritten on a cycle, and once it is gone the best proof of what happened is gone with it.
- Giving the cruise line’s claims adjuster a recorded statement before talking to a lawyer. The adjuster does this every day; you do not.
- Throwing away the ticket and booking paperwork. Those documents identify the sailing and the contract terms, and defense counsel will use their absence against you.
- Filing in the wrong court. The ticket’s forum-selection clause usually sends the case to federal court in Miami, and filing elsewhere can cost you the case and the deadline.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long do I have to sue a cruise line for an injury?
Often just one year from the date of your injury, and you may have only six months to give the cruise line written notice of your claim. The default maritime deadline is three years, but federal law lets a passenger carrier shorten it by contract to a floor of one year to sue and six months for notice, and the major lines that sail from Florida write their tickets right to that floor. Because the deadlines are so short, the safest move is to call as soon as you can rather than assume you have time.
Where do I have to file a cruise ship injury lawsuit?
Usually in the court the ticket tells you to. Cruise lines put forum-selection clauses in their passage contracts, and courts enforce them. For the lines that operate out of South Florida, that forum is generally the federal court in Miami, the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, no matter where you live or where you boarded. Filing in the wrong court can get the case dismissed, sometimes after the deadline has already passed.
Do I have a case if I slipped and fell on the ship?
Maybe. A cruise line owes its passengers reasonable care under the circumstances, but it is not automatically responsible just because you fell. For an ordinary hazard like a wet floor, you generally have to show the line knew or should have known about the condition and failed to address it. Whether the crew had notice, and how long the hazard was there, is usually the heart of the case.
Can I sue the cruise line if I got sick with norovirus?
You can, but you have to prove the illness came from the line’s negligence, not just that you got sick on board. When an outbreak traces to the ship’s food, water, or sanitation, the same reasonable-care standard applies. Causation is the battleground, so the onboard medical records, the timeline, and the ship’s own outbreak reporting matter. The same short deadlines apply to illness claims.
Can I sue the cruise line for its onboard doctor’s malpractice?
Often yes. Cruise lines used to argue they were not responsible for the doctors and nurses in the ship’s medical center because those providers were independent contractors. Under current federal maritime law in the Eleventh Circuit, which covers cases filed in Miami, that defense has weakened, and a cruise line can be held responsible for the negligence of its onboard medical staff when the facts show the line held that staff out as its own and controlled their work. Because it depends on those facts and the ship’s medical records, and because the short cruise deadlines apply, it is worth calling early.
I was hurt on a shore excursion. Is the cruise line responsible?
Sometimes. Shore excursions are often run by separate operators, and the cruise line will argue the operator is an independent contractor it is not responsible for. Whether that argument holds depends on how the excursion was sold and marketed, what the paperwork says, and how much control the line actually had. These cases can involve more than one defendant and more than one insurer, which is exactly why they need to be sorted out early.
What law applies if a family member died on a cruise?
It depends on where the death happened. Beyond three nautical miles from shore, the Death on the High Seas Act usually governs, and it limits recovery to the family’s financial losses, not grief or loss of companionship. Closer to shore or in port, general maritime law or Florida’s Wrongful Death Act may apply and allow a broader recovery. Because the difference can be significant, a death case should be evaluated carefully and quickly.
What does it cost to hire a cruise ship injury lawyer?
Nothing up front. We work on a contingency fee, which means the fee is a percentage of what we recover, and if there is no recovery there is no fee. The consultation is free, and when you call you speak with an attorney who can tell you whether your case is worth pursuing.
Call a Miami Cruise Ship Injury Lawyer
If you were hurt on a cruise, the worst thing you can do is wait, because the deadline may be shorter than you think and the evidence is already at sea. Call me at (305) 694-2676. You will talk to an attorney, usually me, on that first call or later the same day, and you will get a straight answer about whether you have a case and what needs to be preserved right now. My office, Prosper Injury Attorneys, is in North Miami Beach, a short drive from PortMiami and Port Everglades, and I represent injured cruise passengers throughout Florida. We have recovered millions of dollars for injured clients. The consultation is free, and I do not charge a fee unless I recover for you.