January 8, 2026
Can I File a Lawsuit If I Was Hurt on a Cruise Ship Departing Florida?
If you’ve been injured on a cruise ship departing from a Florida port, your case is likely governed by Federal Maritime Law, not standard Florida personal injury law. This means you are bound by the "fine print" of your passenger ticket contract, which often requires you to file a formal written notice of claim within 6 months and a lawsuit within 1 year of the accident.
Even if you live out of state, most major cruise lines (like Carnival, Royal Caribbean, and Norwegian) include "forum selection clauses" that force you to file your lawsuit in federal court in Miami or Fort Lauderdale. To protect your claim, you must act fast to preserve evidence before the ship docks and the scene is cleared.
As a Florida-based attorney, I specialize in overcoming these federal maritime hurdles. Whether you slipped on a wet deck, were injured during a shore excursion, or suffered from medical negligence in the ship’s infirmary, we have to move quickly to secure CCTV footage and maintenance logs before they are overwritten.
1) Where to File Your Cruise Injury Lawsuit ?
This section addresses the biggest shock for most passengers who are injured at sea, especially those who do not live in Florida. You might live in Arizona or Massachusetts, and the injury might have happened off the coast of Mexico. However, the cruise line’s legal documents force the case to be handled right here in Miami.
For almost every major cruise line that operates out of Florida, it forces you to file your lawsuit exclusively in Federal Court in the Southern District of Florida, Miami Division. This rule is mandatory and enforced by the US Supreme Court.
If you are an injured passenger, this means you cannot simply hire a lawyer in your hometown of Dallas, Texas, or Los Angeles, California, and expect them to file your case there. Doing so will almost certainly result in the court dismissing your case.
If your lawyer does not have experience in this specific court, you are already putting your claim at a massive disadvantage. Do not take that risk. The stakes are simply too high for you and your family. The Forum Selection Clause is the first hurdle we must clear, and it requires Florida expertise.
2) Why Cruise Injury Lawsuits Have Extremely Short Deadlines ?
If the jurisdiction issue was not complex enough, the timeline for taking legal action against a cruise line is drastically shorter than almost any other type of personal injury case you might encounter on land. The compressed timeline is the number one reason injured passengers fail to recover compensation. They simply wait too long.
There are two critical, short deadlines you must know about, and these are defined in that same cruise ticket contract you signed:
The Shocking Truth (Notice Period): You typically have an extremely short window, often six months from the date of the incident, to give the cruise line written legal notice of your claim.
The Filing Deadline (Statute of Limitations): The time limit to file your actual lawsuit is usually only one year from the date of the injury.
Let us be very clear about the notice period first. The cruise line requires you to formally notify them in writing of the injury, including the date, location, and nature of your injuries, within six months of the accident. This is not a casual email to customer service. This is a formal legal requirement.
Missing this six-month deadline can permanently bar your claim, regardless of how serious your injury is or how negligent the cruise line was. They will use this failure to give notice as a complete defense to your lawsuit, and they will win. This strict requirement is why you must contact a lawyer as soon as possible, ideally while you are still onboard or within days of disembarking.
My immediate action step for you is this: Do not wait. If you were injured last month, you are already one-sixth of the way through your notice period. If you were injured seven months ago, your window for notice may have already closed, severely crippling your ability to recover compensation.
These deadlines are not flexible, and courts enforce them strictly. It is my job to evaluate your specific cruise ticket contract, determine the exact notice and filing deadlines, and make sure we meet them with absolute certainty. Preserving the claim is always the first and most critical priority in every case we handle.
3) Prove Cruise Line Negligence Under Maritime Law
Once we clear the hurdles of jurisdiction and deadlines, the next challenge is proving that the cruise line was legally responsible for your injury.
Under maritime law, the cruise line owes you a duty of reasonable care. This duty means they must take reasonable steps to ensure the ship is safe for passengers.
The central concept we must prove is that the cruise line knew or should have known about the dangerous condition that caused your injury and failed to fix it or failed to warn you about it.
It is important to understand what "knew or should have known" means in the real world. However, if a cruise line fails to act when:
There is a recurring hazard: the same spot on the pool deck has been dangerously slippery for months due to a defect in the anti-skid tape, and the cruise line has filed internal reports about it. They knew.
Maintenance is ignored: A railing has been visibly loose or broken for three days, and staff members have walked past it without tagging it for repair. They should have known.
Security is inadequate: A physical assault occurred in an unmonitored stairwell at 2:00 AM, and the cruise line knew that specific area was a hot spot for trouble but failed to post security staff. They should have known.
My job is to find the proof that establishes this knowledge. This means getting behind the scenes to find the evidence they do not want you to see.
The Essential Evidence List That We Need:
To successfully prove negligence in Miami Federal Court, the immediate collection and preservation of evidence is absolutely critical. Evidence can be lost, deleted, or covered up quickly on a moving ship. We need to secure the following elements to build your case:
Incident Reports Filed on the Ship: You must ask the ship’s security or guest services to prepare a report immediately.
Witness Contact Information: The most important evidence is often the testimony of fellow passengers who saw the accident or the hazard beforehand. Get their full name, phone number, email address, and home city. Do not rely on the cruise line to track them down for you.
Photos and Videos of the Hazard: If you can safely do so, take photos of the dangerous condition itself, the missing light bulb, the water spill, the broken step, or the missing signage. This photographic evidence is often the cornerstone of proving the cruise line had notice of the condition.
Ship-Side Medical Records and Follow-up Records: Keep every single piece of paper from the ship’s infirmary, including billing records. We must compare the initial diagnosis with the findings of your doctor back home. The ship’s medical team may try to minimize the severity of your injury, which is why your follow-up medical records are crucial for establishing the full scope of your damages.
Successfully proving a cruise line’s negligence is a matter of diligence, speed, and knowing exactly which court documents to demand. We must act quickly before the ship’s logs are overwritten and the witness memories fade. Every piece of evidence listed above strengthens your ability to recover money for medical bills, lost wages, and your pain and suffering.
Keep Faith in Robert J. Johnson to Handle Your Florida Cruise Injury Case
If you or a loved one were injured on a cruise that departed from a Florida port, I urge you to remember the two most critical takeaways from this discussion.
Your claim is subject to maritime law, and you almost certainly have to sue in federal court in Miami, Florida. Filing in the wrong state or the wrong court is a mistake that will cost you your entire case.
I offer a free consultation. There is no cost to you for me to evaluate your case and immediately investigate the critical deadlines that apply to your specific cruise ticket contract. Call my office, Robert J. Johnson, P.A., today. We will immediately evaluate your legal options, preserve your evidence, and start the fight for the compensation you deserve.
Disclaimer: This article is for general informational purposes and does not form an attorney-client relationship. For help with a specific legal issue, reach out to Robert J. Johnson.
