If you were hurt on a Carnival ship, on a shore excursion, or getting on or off a tender boat, you may have a claim against the cruise line. Carnival Cruise Line’s ticket contract sets short deadlines, so it pays to get answers early.
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Missing a deadline can end your claim. Evidence such as CCTV footage, maintenance logs and witness names disappears fast.
Mardi Gras, Carnival Celebration, Carnival Jubilee and every Fun Ship sailing from Miami, Port Canaveral, Galveston and other U.S. ports.
For more than 30 years, Spencer Aronfeld has successfully represented injured passengers in claims against Carnival Cruise Lines. We believe that the most important legal obstacle that an injured passenger faces in making a claim against Carnival is to preserve their legal rights by filing their claims timely in the United States Federal Court in Miami. Carnival cruise line, like most international cruise ships, requires that passenger injury lawsuits be filed within one year of the date of the incident. Which makes each passenger injury lawsuit by definition a “federal case.”
Accordingly, we urge anyone who has been involved in an accident during their Carnival cruise line journey to consult with an experienced and aggressive maritime lawyer–quickly. Important evidence such as CCTV footage of the cruise line accident, maritime data regarding the wind and wave conditions, and the names of witnesses and crewmembers are often lost or difficult to locate with the passage of time.
Generally speaking, the sooner an injury claim can be initiated the better the result for our clients will be. Therefore, we file passenger injury lawsuits against Carnival for various types of accident claims as soon as possible. Generally speaking, we do not take cruise accident cases that we do not believe should be filed.
Perhaps the most common cases against Carnival involve people who have slipped or tripped on the ship in their cabins, pool deck or at one of the buffets. With injuries ranging from broken arms and legs to more serious head, neck and brain injuries often resulting in lost wages, astronomical medical expenses, and pain & suffering.
“The Carnival Great Vacation Guarantee™ is the greatest guarantee you’ll never need to use. If you’re not happy with any 3–8 day Carnival vacation you take to The Bahamas, the Caribbean, the Mexican Riviera, Canada/New England or Alaska, just let us know within 24 hours of your departure. We’ll refund 110% of your fare and our Guest Services will get you back to your home, free of charge. With no hassles and no questions asked.“
It sounds good until one reads the fine print. Carnival’s refund offer only extended to U.S. and Canadian residents–who also have passports that permit them to travel to Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean, the Bahamas, and Bermuda, and the refunded trips must take place before April 30, 2015. Carnival also offers to get unhappy passengers off their ships as fast as possible by allowing them to disembark and be flown home from any available port.
Carnival’s corporate headquarters and the in-house legal department is based in Doral, Florida, a busy suburb of Miami. Their offices are conveniently located just a few miles from the Port of Miami and the United States Federal Courthouse–where any carnival cruise ship passenger accident claim against Carnival is required to be filed.
Send us an email or call 866-597-4529 for a confidential evaluation of your potential case.
Carnival requires that all accident cases be filed and litigated in Miami, Florida. This is often shocking to many people who are injured aboard a Carnival ship-especially when that cruise did not even depart from Miami. We have represented passengers injured on Carnival cruise lines that have departed from the following ports–all have been required to file their accident claims here in Miami, Florida:
Carnival was founded in 1972 is currently the largest with 22 ships in its fleet and the most powerful cruise line in the world. It is based in Miami, Florida near the Port of Miami which happens to be the busiest cruise ship port in the world.
The Carnival Corporation is the parent company to multiple different cruise line brands and owns and operates them out of their Miami corporate offices. Currently Carnival’s subsidiary brands include:
Carnival Ships
Carnival Dream – Built: 2009 – Capacity: 3,646
Carnival Splendor – Built: 2008 – Capacity: 3,734
Carnival Freedom – Built: 2007 – Capacity: 3,734
Carnival Liberty – Built: 2005 – Capacity: 3,756
Carnival Valor – Built: 2004 – Capacity: 3,756
Carnival Miracle – Built: 2004 – Capacity: 2,680
Carnival Glory – Built: 2003 – Capacity: 3,756
Carnival Conquest – Built: 2002 – Capacity: 3,756
Carnival Legend – Built: 2002 – Capacity: 2,610
Carnival Pride – Built: 2002 – Capacity: 2,680
Carnival Spirit – Built: 2001 – Capacity: 2,610
Carnival Paradise – Built: 1998 – Capacity: 2,606
Carnival Elation – Built: 1998 – Capacity: 2,606
Carnival Ecstasy – Built: 1991 – Capacity: 2,606
Our cruise ship injury attorneys focus on suing Carnival Corporation and its other brands- such as Carnival Cruise Line which holds itself out as “The World’s Most Popular Cruise Line” — and now carries millions of passengers around the world every year.
Its newest ship is the game-changing Carnival Mardi Gras which set sail not long ago. It also frequently sells, trades and remodels iots older ships such as the newly transformed Carnival Radiance.
In 2022 Carnival plans on releasing another new shop called the Carnival Celebration (fall 2022) and the Carnival Jubilee (2023) will join the Carnival fleet.
Most of Carnival’s 22 ships are registered in the country of Panama. This is called a Flag of Convenience and is done to avoid taxes, building regulations and safety codes. This can create some difficulties for lawyers who specialize in suing Carnival for personal injuries because often different foreign laws can apply to the case- even though the case is being litigated in the United States.
In addition to its ships Carnival owns a private island in the Bahamas called Half Moon Cay. The island caters exclusively to Carnival passengers and offers activities like horseback riding and kayaking.
People who get hurt on Carnival’s island, from slipping and falling, tripping and falling, horseback riding injuries, kayaking accidents or from other reasons still need to bring their cases against Carnival in Miami, not in the Bahamas. Which is why you need to hire a lawyer that knows how to handle a case against Half Moon Cay and hold Carnival responsible if their carelessness causes you harm.
Carnival makes it very difficult and expensive for injured individuals to sue them for accidents that happen on their cruise ships.
First, the cases must be filed within one year of the date of the incident in Federal Court in Miami. Many times, when people are seriously hurt on a Carnival cruise, for instance slipping and falling on the wet deck or a poorly lit staircase or carelessly designed basketball court they will require months of medical care for injuries like broken legs, fractured arms, wrist injuries, spine injuries and brain injuries.
For injured passengers who are unable to work and have mounting medical expenses, looking for and hiring a lawyer is not a priority. Our cruise injury attorneys always recommend that you contact us as soon as possible after the incident, from the cruise itself if possible so that we can start our investigation before valuable evidence, witnesses and the accident scene are modified or removed.
Carnival for instance has CCTV cameras throughout most of their ships, but if they are not expressly ordered to preserve the CCTV they will often fail to save it. Instead they always claim to have only saved a small portion of the video footage or they destroy it entirely.
Also witnesses tend to disappear quickly after an accident. Crew members are on contracts with Carnival, and they are mostly from foreign countries like the Philippines, Indonesia and India. They often live in remote villages which make it nearly impossible to interview them after an accident. Carnival can quickly terminate their contracts or transfer them to places that are hard to find in the event that their statements have to be obtained.
Also passengers who may have witnessed an accident will have fading memories. And if they are asked years later, what they saw and how it happened they can often give incorrect answers that can destroy an injured passenger’s personal injury claim against Carnival.
Instead our Maritime accident attorneys in Miami like to speak to and memorialize witness statements as soon as possible- as they are most likely more accurate closer to the actual time of the incident.
The same is true of ship inspections. The most common issues in a Carnival cruise ship slip and fall has to do with the slip resistance of the deck or flooring. Carnival frequently uses artificial teak wood decks that can become unreasonably slippery when wet with sea spray or spilled drinks or puddles caused by wet feet running out of a pool, jacuzzi or water slide.
The flooring needs to be tested as soon as possible after a slip and fall accent on a Carnival cruise ship so that our experts can detect just how slippery the surface was at the time of the fall. This analysis is commonly referred to as the coefficient of friction- and it is a hotly contested and debated element of most slip and fall cruise ship accident cases.
If you or a loved one has been hurt while on a Carnival cruise, either on board the ship, in port or on an excursion- please contact our office today to speak with an experienced cruise accident attorney. We provide free initial consultations by telephone, ZOOM or FaceTime to our clients from around the world.
Carnival has an army of aggressive and well funded defense lawyers who are trained to keep Carnival’s profits high and deprive the injured the justice they would otherwise deserve when Carnival puts their profits ahead of passenger safety.
You too, need an advocate who is experienced, passionate and will fight hard for you too. We are here and we are ready to help.
Free, confidential consultation. Available 24/7 in English and Spanish.
Call 866-597-4529Send us a messageYes, if the injury was caused by the cruise line’s negligence. Your rights are governed by maritime law and your passenger contract. You generally have to show Carnival knew, or should have known, about the danger, such as a wet deck, broken railing or unsafe stairs.
Look for a Miami maritime lawyer who regularly files cases in federal court in Miami, where Carnival’s ticket requires most injury suits to be brought. Spencer Aronfeld is Board Certified in Civil Trial Law by The Florida Bar and has represented injured cruise passengers since 1991.
Very little time. Carnival’s ticket contract generally requires written notice of your claim within 185 days and a lawsuit within 1 year of the injury. Missing either deadline can end your claim.
Carnival’s ticket contract generally requires passenger injury cases to be filed in federal court in Miami, no matter where you live or where the ship sailed.
Common claims include slips and falls on wet decks and stairs, injuries on shore excursions, medical malpractice by shipboard medical staff, foodborne and other illnesses, assaults and overboard accidents.
Possibly. Excursions sold by the cruise line can create claims against both Carnival and the tour operator, and Carnival may be responsible for unsafe conditions at destinations it owns or operates, such as Celebration Key. The same ticket deadlines usually apply.
Sometimes. If an outbreak or foodborne illness was caused by poor sanitation or food handling, Carnival may be responsible. Keep your medical records and note other passengers who got sick.
Often, yes. The federal appeals court covering Florida has allowed passengers to hold cruise lines responsible for negligent care by shipboard medical staff (Franza v. Royal Caribbean, 2014).
It can affect deadlines, where you can sue and, on some international voyages, how much can be recovered. Those limits have exceptions, so have a lawyer review your ticket.
Yes. Because most Carnival cases must be filed in Miami, we represent cruise passengers from across the country, mostly by phone, video and email. Call (866) 597-4529.
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